Sillent Hill: The course
by Noxfero
Summary: Title is pretty self-explanatory. When I find a good pun I'll change it. A group of ponies, after receiving a congratulatory letter and a ticket for a free vacation, end up being dragged into a dark, misty nightmare. *OC submission closed* T for obvious reasons if you know the Silent Hill saga.
1. Winners

"Come on Camo, come on!" cried a little, candid earth pony filly with a long green mane that was held in place by a scarlett hair-band, while trotting happily over the suspended wooden bridge mounted at the edge of one of Canterlot's terraces. The few rain drops evidently couldn't ruin the enthusiasm of the little filly, as she jumped happily towards the flying ship that was hovering lazily. Canterlot's sky was dark and filled with clouds, with few ponies trotting through the empty streets.

The earth pony addressed by the filly sighed with a smile as he followed her. His green mottled fur was already soacking wet, as well as the saddlebag he was carrying, protecting at least his flanks and his cutie mark, which was a purple horseshoe.

"Don't run around like this Dahlia. I would appreciate if we could have a calm vacation without slips around." He called to the filly, as she began to jump in the puddles. The stallion sighed again, before moving towards the air ship: he wasn't exactly an expert, but he could tell it didn't seem to be in a good shape: the black balloon seemed to be a little deflated, and the ropes tying it to the wooden frame of the ship were frayed. The ship itself seemed to be a little wrecked. "So much for a free vacation." Grumbled the stallion, stepping onto the dock, joining the little filly in front of a shady pegasus at the start of the footbridge.

"Stop running around!" he hissed, tapping the little filly's back, who just pouted. The stallion sighed and moved his eyes over the pegasus: a black and skinny figure, draped in a raincoat and a large slashed hat on his head. "So much for fancy travel." thought the stallion, before clearing his throat. "Hello there. Name's Camo Fall, and she's my little sister, Dahlia. We have won a week's vacation, apparently." He stated, while pulling out from his saddlebag a couple of red tickets with his mouth, holding them up. The pegasus nodded, his poker face unchanged.

"We were waiting for you, Mister Fall and little Dahila." He stated, stepping aside. "I assume that's the only luggage you have?" he asked, pointing a wing towards the saddlebag.

"Yup. Don't think we need anything else." Stated the green earth pony. He pushed his little sister gently, and they began to walk along the stepbridge before Camo turned towards the pegasus. "Where is our cabin?"

"The only one lit in the under deck." Stated the black pegasus, shaking a little his body under the faint rain. "And you'll have to divide it with the others winners. Sorry, but most of the cabins of this airship are wrecked and old, with lights and doors that don't work."

"That's not exactly what I had in mind." Grunted the earth pony. The pegasus shrugged.

"I'm sorry. But I can say that your vacation will pay back for this little inconvenience." he stated, still with his emotionless voice.

"Well… hope so. It's so rare for me to manage to take my little sis somewhere. This prize was actually a nice thing." Camo Fall stated, returning to look at the ship. "Are you sure this thing will hold up? If you want, I can do repairs for a small charge."

"We'll see." Stated the pegasus. Camo waited a couple of seconds for any reaction. Since the pegasus didn't move he eventually let it go, and walked over the ship, joining his sister on the deck. She was looking at the Canterlot's towers, visible even in the faint light of the early morning sun, and even with the sky covered by clouds.

"Dalhia, let's go to our cabin and let's get you dry. Curse me for not thinking to take an umbrella." Muttered the stallion, just before a loud ripping noise sounded in the air, as his saddlebags ripped and all the clothing, books and a little bag fell to the wet wooden floor. The stallion cursed and rushed to grab some of the fallen things, worried that the slight roking of the airship could send some of their things over the edge.

"I'm sorry Camo, I shouldn't have loaded all of my stuff in your bags!" cried out the little filly, trying to help her brother: he just sighed, while grasping a little dress. "Now what do we do?" asked the filly worriedly, while grabbing a book and wiping a little bit of water from the cover.

"Need any help?" asked a sweet voice. The couple of ponies rose their eyes, looking into the ones of a light purple pegasus mare with a with a long very light blue mane that was spiked and slicked back. On her back, an umbrella was mounted over a little saddlebag, protecting her fur from the rain. The stallion blinked, before regaining his composure and nodding.

"I can't say no." He grunted. The mare nodded, and began to help Dahlia to gather whatever they could, putting it over her back.

"That's a lot of stuff. Are you going for a vacation or moving away?" she asked, smiling. The stallion grunted something under his breath. The little filly rolled her eyes, before turning towards the mare.

"Me and my brother have won a super fun vacation!" she chirped, smiling. "Oh, and my name is Dahlia!" she added, with a large smile. The mare chuckled, while grabbing another book.

"Well, hello Dahlia. I'm High Winds." She said sweetly, then moved her eyes over the green stallion. "And your brother is…?"

"Name's Camo Fall." He muttered. "Buck, all this stuff!"

"Hey mister, can you help us, please?" called the little white filly, looking at the mottionless figure of the pegasus stallion in the raincoat. He didn't moved for a couple of seconds, before moving over the ship, looking at them without speaking. Then, after another couple of seconds, he bowed and began to gather whatever he could. After a few minutes, all the stuff was piled over High Winds' and Camo Fall's backs.

"Thank you mister!" exclaimed the little filly with a smile.

"Yeah, thanks mister." Added her brother. The pegasus shrugged, turning and beginning to walk down the little wooden bridge.

"Name's Caronte." He said with his emottionless voice. The stallion shrugged. It wasn't his buisness anyway. His ears flickered a little when he heard the last whisper of the pegasus: "Hope you'll find what are you looking for…"

"I think it's better if we head down, yes?" asked the mare, flapping her wings and looking at the two. The little filly nodded and hopped behind her onto the wooden stairs that led to the covered part of the ship, followed by a moody Camo Fall. At least, his sister had already started to relax.

The underbelly of the ship were extremely darck, lit only by a series of oil lamps placed on the walls. A lot of doors were blocked by wooden plates, or just not inviting in the slightest. On the other side, the last few compartments were well lit, with warm air coming out of them, inviting the ponies into the least-crowded: three comfortable puffy seats were empty, while the fourth near the big window was filled by a sleeping grey stallion, with his muzzle engulfed in a scarf and a pair of shades over his eyes. His grey belly moved slightly every time he breathed, his emerald-gray mane falling over his face.

"Here is cool." whispered the mare, trying to not wake up the pony as she sat beside him, after putting her saddlebag and part of the contents of the two siblings' bag in the rack over the seats.

"This is going to be amazing!" chirped the little filly, before shutting up as soon as her brother glared at her. "Hem… say, what's was the name of that little town where we are going?" She whispered, trying to avoid an argument.

"Mh.. a strange name. I never heared of it before, honestly… Silent Hill, right?"

Oo-oO

So yeah, Another oc centered fic. Who would have guessed?

Since "Operation cleaning" is moving towards its end in a few chapters, I began to work on the next oc centered fic, as you can see. Why oc centered fic? Because they are so fun to write.

The title is quite self explanatory, I think, so, I need some more oc, if you are interested in submitting one, just pm me and I'll send you the form to fill.

I promise that if I can find a good pun for Silent Hill to set it in an Equestrian environment, I'll change the title and the town's name, but for now…

The Oc for now:

Camo Fall and Dahlia: Auto-Assist

High Winds:

The for now sleeping Solaris: Erol


	2. Landing

"So… what do you do for a living?" asked High Winds, looking at the stallion in front of her. Camo moved away his eyes from the window, and looked to the mare. Dahlia didn't move, still glued at the window and looking at the land far below them.

"Well… I'm a carpenter. You know, Canterlot is a good place for us. All those fancy ponies always have some work for us. Always want some sort of fancy carved cabinets, doors, and stuff." Stated the stallion, while relaxing on his seat. "And you?" he asked, smiling slightly. The warm air, the calm rocking of the ship and the far sounds of the airship's engines were making him relax.

"Meh, I work in Cloudsdale's weather factory. Quite boring sometimes, but well, it's a good place." stated calmly the mare, waving a hoof. "I managed to take a week off for this vacation I won. I must admit, it was good news, I was getting a little tired of meshing clouds."

"So, you won the vacation too?" asked a sweet voice at the entrance of their compartment: a thin blue unicorn mare with a long, dark blue mane striped with white was standing there, smiling softly at them. A scarlet scarf was tied around her neck, firmly knotted. Behind the mare, another unicorn mare with a dark red coat and a short spiky mane recalling a bunch of flames in color, keeped togheter by a blue ribbon in ashort ponytail that was falling in front of one of her eyes, was motionless in the corridor, looking at one of the other compartments.

"Sorry for the intrusion." Stated sweetly the blue mare, giving a quick glance behind her. "But we had to leave our cabin. One of the passangers was becoming quite unbearable, and I was afraid my sister was going to burn his mane." She said, pointing at the other unicorn, then returned her eyes over the other ponies. "So I decided to see who else was on this ship." She smiled and took a couple of steps inside. "My name is Winter Lily. And she's my sister, Fire Flower."

"Sup?" stated the mare outside, looking disinterested.

"Hi! I'm Dahlia!" cried out the little filly, waving her hoof. "This is my big bro Camo Fall, and our friend High Winds." she chirped. The sleeping pony groaned, straightening and yawning.

"And that was a pony that was trying to sleep." Hissed Camo, tapping the little filly's nape. The gray stallion stretched and examined the rest of the ponies through his shades. "Say sorry for waking him up Dahlia." Ordered the green stallion, glaring at his sister. The other stallion moved his hoof in a dismissive manner, yawning again.

"I was going to wake up anyway, there is no problem." He stated calmly. "Wow, this place is crowded. With a bunch of lovey mares, I'll add." He said, probably smiling under his scarf. The ship rocked a little.

"Sorry 'bout that, mister. My sister is a little excited." Stated Camo, still looking at the gray earth pony, who just chuckled.

"No 'mister', just call me Solaris. And I can understand her. I mean, we are all going to a premium vacation, right?" he asked, looking at all the others. "At least, that was what I was told." The ship rocked again, the wooden planks screeching a little.

"Well yes. And you know, the fun fact is that we didn't remember entering any lottery or anything like that." intervened Winter Lily. "The same goes for a friend of ours."

"That we left with the annoying unicorn." Added Fire Flower, with a smirk. "Hope he doesn't tear him apart."

"Look how cloudy it is!" stated surprised Dahlia, looking outside the window. Camo gave a quick glance, noticing that indeed they were surrounded by stormy clouds, and a thik cover of mist hid whatever was under them. The ship rocked again, this time making the ponies jump in their seats, as the saddlebags in the racks rolled on the ground and the two unicorn mares lost their balance.

"What the hay?"

A loud sound of cracking was heard as the ship bounced again, staring to rock strongly. There was a loud snapping sound, and a torn rope flew in front of their window as the ship tilted suddenly back, sending the two sisters to the floor, as well as Solaris. Dahlia screamed, holding onto her seat, as Camo and High Winds jumped on their hooves. There was another loud noise, they watched, terrified, as a piece of wood flew in front of their windows, heading towards the ground.

"What's that stupid pegasus doing?!" screamed Camo, before darting away from the cabin, galloping towards the stairs to the upper area, taking a quick glance at two unicorn stallions walking out of another lit cabin, before running up the stairs and stepping on the deck: part of the wooden banister was gone, torn away by the tempest that was hitting the air ship. Lightnings were striking in the sky, while the rain was so thick that it was a hard work to see a few inches ahead of his hooves. He had just the vision of the half torn deck, and the ripped ropes flying around, moved by the wind.

"What the…? It wasn't like this from inside…" thought the stallion, before running towards the stairs to the helm, trying to stay balanced on the wet surface. Around him, the wind was blowing furiously, sending chips of wood against his muzzle. As he had predicted, the ship was falling apart: the old wood was being smashed by the force of the elements, and the consumed ropes holding the baloon were snapping, one after another, letting the ship fall more and more loose.

"Caronte! What the hay!" cried out the stallion, finally reaching the upper deck, where the silhouette of the black pegasus was holding the helm. "Why the hay are you driving in a an unprotected route!" screamed Camo Fall.

"It's not safe for the passenger to be on deck during a storm." Stated coldly the pegasus, turning the wheel.

"Are you crazy?! Are you trying to kill us?!" screamed hysterically the earth pony, running towards the pegasus.

"Not this time! This time we are going to do it! We are going to do it! It's just a storm! This ship can take it! This ship can hold!" screamed the pegasus, flapping his wings.

"No it can't!" screamed Camo, trying to reach the helm, but the wooden planks under his hooves wrenched, and the stallion fell with a scream in the ship, smashing through another wooden floor and falling into the corridor under deck, a little far from the cabins.

" You alright, pal?" asked a gray unicorn with a short black mane in front of his eyes, galloping towards him. Camo gulped and panted, trying to catch his breath. He jumped on his hooves as a final screeching sound was heard, and the wooden surface under his hooves began to tremble under them, just a second before the ship began to roll on one of its side.

"Dahlia!" cried out the stallion, running inside the cabin, where the little filly was being held by the pegasus mare. Camo had the vision of a misty woods coming nearer and nearer to the ship, as it continue to roll slowly in the air.

"Unicorns, do something to slow down the fall!" screamed another unicorn that Camo hadn't noticed. A light green unicorn with a long mane with a single white stripe, and a peculiar mark on his flank: a scale overburdened with gold and food, encrusted with a large emerald and made of gold. His horn began to glow with green magic. After a second, the other three unicorns raised their horns, evoking their magic.

"Camo, I'm scared!" screamed the little filly, running out of the pegasus' grip and into her brother's legs. The stallion held her and closed his eyes, as the ship continued its fall towards the ground.

-oOo-

The first thing that Camo noticed when he opened his eyes, was the mist. An enormous, endless sheet of mist was surrounding him. Still, he could see where he was: in a swamp. Trees drowned in the mist were visible a short distance away, but the wreck of the ship were all stabbed in the mud floor under his hooves. Half of the prow of the ship was sunken partly into the swamp, while the rest of the cabins were a few feet away, scattered all around. The stallion grunted and relaxed, as he felt the little ball of fur that was his sister trembling under his hoof.

"Hey, is everypony ok?!" called out the voice of Winter Lily, as the unicorn staggered into the stallion's field of view. Her legs were scratched, and a big bruise was visible on her flank.

"For Celestia's sake my wing!" cried out the voice of High Wings, followed by a series of groans from other ponies. Camo raised on his hooves, flinching a little when a cut on his neck made him aware of its presence.

"You ok Deh?" he asked quietly, looking as his sister stood on her trembeling legs, her candid fur stained with mud. She nodded, a little confused.

"Buck me!" groaned the voice of Solaris, as the stallion walked out from under a pile of wooden wreck, followed by the gray unicorn. His glasses were cracked, but were still placed over his muzzle.

"Bucking vacation my horseshoes!" croaked Fire Flower in the mist. "Winter, need a hoof here, this girl is in trouble." She called, causing Winter to trot over her. Camo grabbed his sister and placed her on his back, before joining the others: more or less, they had managed to receive only few cuts and bruises. Apparently, the unicorns had managed to slow down the ship's fall. The green unicorn that had proposed that was a little further away from the others, examining a series of cuts from wood chips on his muzzle. Camo just gave him a quick glance, before actually examining the scene: High Winds was trapped under a big piece of wood, that was one of her wings pinned. The gray unicorn, following Winter Lily's instructions, raised and moved away the wood, letting the mare examine the wing.

"You are lucky lady, it's not broken, just dislocated." She stated after a few moments. The pegasus whimpered and slowly raised on her hooves, looking worriedly at her wing. "Don't worry. With a little bit of help, I can fix it."

"Come on sis, you are a medic, can't you just use some spell?" asked Flame Flower, receiving a glare in response.

"I'm still studying. I won't risk uselessly worsening her situation." She stated. "While falling I saw what looked like the town not too far away from here. We should just move on and find a path to it. It's the middle of the day, after all, the hospital will be open. Or at least, a doctor."

"It's hard to tell, with all this mist." Commented the gray stallion. Camo noted only in that moment that his cutie mark was a hammer and an anvil. "Well, let's just be happy abouth the light that we have."

"Well said, Metal Hooves. Let's just get away from this swamp. Are you ok there, Crow?" asked Fire Flower, while joining her sister. The green unicorn puffed his chest out, huffing.

" To you it's Lord Crow, peasant. And anyway, yes. I had two chests of cothes, but I'm sure I'll have them retrieved." Stated the stallion, before following the others up a little hill. Solaris looked at them, before trotting to their side.

"Where do you think the driver went?" he asked, looking around.

"He probably just flew away. Little bitch, I'll break his bones next time I see him." grunted Camo. "We could have ended up dead if it wasn't for the unicorns."

"You can clean my horseshoes later." Stated mockingly the 'Lord Crow' character, chuckling. The other stallion didn't react, as they continued to walk through the mist, finally reaching a street.

"Let's move. I want to get over with this quickly."

Oo-oOHeading into town, heading into town, yay…. Fuck.

So yes, things are already looking bad. And, of course, they're going to be even worse. For the new Ocs, thanks to:

Nami takata for Flame Flower & Winter Lily

The Nurgling for Lord Crow

Chronic Writer's Block for Metal Hooves.

So, I'm a little insecure if leading them straight to town, or let them visit something else, before actually entering the city. Oh, I'll see… but let me know what would you prefer.

Still accepting oc, but for now on, just ponies already trapped in the city.


	3. The Restourant

"How's your wing?" asked Dahlia, looking at the pegasus mare that was walking calmly at Camo's side. High Winds smiled, looking at the filly.

"It's alright Dahlia. Is hurting a little bit, but is not broken." She said sweetly. The little filly continued to stare at the injured wing that was lying motionless at the mare's side, twitching slightly with every step.

"Don't worry about it, it'll be easy to fix, once we arrive at the hospital." Added Winter Lily from behind them. "For now, just don't use it."

"If we can get to the town!" grunted the gray unicorn, moving the stream of light that his horn was emitting around. "This fog is thick as hay." He growled, still following the road. Camo couldn't be more on the same page: it was actually hard to see a few feet in front of them; even with Metal Hooves and Flame Flower's lights, it was impossible to see the end of the road. Only the tops of the trees at the road's sides emerged from the fog.

"Why does it have to be so foggy?" grunted Solaris, adjusting the cracked shades on his muzzle, while looking around.

"Well, when I received the letter from the mail zebra that declared I had won this awful trip, I asked him why I should leave my comfortable castle for a little provincial town…" began Lord Crow , waving a hoof, as Winter Lily rolled her eyes. "He told me that the town was just in front of a lake. So I assume that's why it's so foggy."

"A lake! Yay, we can swim all day long, Camo!" chirped the little filly. Her brother smiled and nodded. Of course, their first step would have to be a hospital, just to check if Dahlia was injured. Then they would move to the agency responsible for the flying ship to get refund. And then, relaxing. Yep, that was a good plan.

"Is that a building?" asked Metal Hooves suddenly, focusing his eyes on a shape emerging from the fog: a two-floor tall building, built with faint colored bricks and little dirty windows on the upper floor. At the street level, they could see a series of bigger windows for all the wall's lenght. As they approached, their eyes were drawn to a little board with neon letters spelling "Trotting Me-l". The 'a' was lying on the ground, fallen from the board. The place seemed to be some sort of restourant, not in its best state.

"Well, look at this. I have seen farmer's houses better than this place." commented Crow, glaring at the structure. "Why the hay is it so dark? Is it abandoned?"

"Chill out, you. It's probably just closed. It's early in the morning, you know?" Commented Metal Hooves. Camo took a few steps towards the store, examining the dirty windows: indeed, it seemed to be closed, the inside was dark, and only a few tables were visible.

"I assume that the ponies who handle this place live on the upper floor. Maybe we can ask for help." Stated High Winds. In response, Flame Flower raised her horn, causing a flaming explosion near one of the windows on the upper floor, startling the rest of the group.

"Flame!" cried out Winter Lily, glaring at her sister, and receiving only a chuckle in answer. They waited for a couple of minutes, as the stream of fire disappeared from the sky, but nopony opened the windows, to see who was causing such a ruckus.

"Let's just head inside and search for help." Stated Camo, walking towards the entrance.

"Yes, they probably are a couple of deaf mules." Grunted Crow, taking a couple of steps forwards, before stopping and cowering, as a storm of crows suddenly flew off the roof of the building and passed over them, cawing. High Winds passed beside the scared unicorn, giving him a questioning look.

"I don't like crows, ok?" stated Crow, raising again on his hoofes and walking with an annoyed expression towards the building's entrance, ignoring the giggles of the mares behind him. He joined Camo, who was studying the door with a frown on his face, tapping a metallic clipper on the lock. "What are you trying to do here, peasants?" asked the unicorn, while regaining his composure.

"Trying to open the door, since it's locked. And can you just stop calling us that? It's not very nice. Especially with a filly around." answered Camo, as with a little click the lock opened.

"You are good at picking locks. Do you have any experience in that?" asked Crow, avoiding the other stallion's statement. Camo didn't answered, pushing open the door and entering the restaurant, followed by the others.

"Hello? Anypony home?" shouted Metal Hooves, without receiving any response. Solaris walked towards the counter, passing a hoof throught the dense layer of dust over the wooden surface.

"They need to clean this place a little." He commented, adjusting again his cracked shades and moving towards a photo on the wall. Flame Flower and Winter Lily examined the jukebox laying against one of the walls, near a ripped piece of wallpaper. Metal Hooves eyed the bathroom sign, and trotted happily over to it. Crow let himself fall into one of the puffy and dusty armchairs near the tables, then jumping immediately again on his hooves as a couple of spiders walked out of it. Camo Fall put Dahlia down, looking around.

"Well, you guys stay here. I'll chek around, see if I can find the owners of this place." stated Camo, before heading through the door behind the counter, as the others gave nods. High Winds sat in another armchair, looking around, slightly bored and uneasy. And she had hoped for a nice vacation. She sighed and looked around the large dining room where they were sitting. Her eyes happened to fall on a rolled, yellow newspaper placed behind a table, partially covered in dust. Since she didn't have anything better to do, apart from trying to not notice the pain coming from her wing, she grabbed it, beginning to read the title.

-oOo-

Well… he wasn't actually searching for the kitchen. Apparently, the stairs must have been on the other side of the big room filled with stoves and refrigerators.

"At least the emergency lights are on, so I won't slam into anything…" thought the stallion, as he walked towards the other door, which would probably lead to the stairs. He looked nervously into the empty room, mentally regretting that his companions were so silent. The silence of the place was really starting to freak him out.

He trotted towards the door and gently tugged the handle. The door didn't budge, as if the lock had something jammed inside it. Camo sighed. How did the owner of this place get inside the kitchen?

"Maybe there is some sort of emergency stair behind the building and they enter from the main door. Boy, this place really sucks." Thought the stallion, turning, ready to return to the others. As soon as he turned, he noted something: one of the stoves was on, a little circle of flames spreading out of the metallic surface. Camo raised an eyebrow, walking towards the stove, examining it. The valve was still closed.

"Mh… what is there, a leak?" he muttered, trying to force closed the valve. The little circle of flames didn't change at all. Instead, from the stove behind came a hissing sound, as another circle of flames lit up. "Ok… this is weird." Murmured the stallion, turning and examining the newly lit up stove. "Is this some kind of time-connected magical shit?" he murmured, studying the stove. "Well, at least, it means that the owners are coming, I assume." He commented, as all the others stoves lit up. The stallion turned and trotted towards the door: it would already be awkward enough to explain how they got in: it was best that they didn't find him in their kitchen, too.

He was about to turn towards the door, when the flames in front of him suddenly burst up, raising high with a high-pitched sound as the metallic stoves exploded. Camo fell backwards, startled, as the suddenly big flames began to attack the wall. "The hay?! So much for safety standards!"

The stallion jumped on his hooves and ran towards the door, to join the others and get her sister out of there! He grabbed the handle and slammed himself against the door, as he tried to open it. "What the…?" The handle wasn't moving. The stallion slammed his hooves against the door. "Hey! Guys help me! There is a fucking fire here!" he cried out, receiving no answer. He turned, facing the flames that were attacking the walls, burning the wallpaper. His eyes fell over a button, partially hidden behind a battery of pots, with the dirty writing above it reading 'in case of fire'.

The stallion rushed towards it and pressed the button with both hooves, hoping to activate an alarm or something. With a hissing sound, a couple of sprinklers hidden in the dirty ceiling popped out, beginning to spray a strong smelling liquid all over the kitchen. Wherever the liquid hit, the flames just grew bigger.

"Gasoline?! Why the fuck are the sprinklers spurting gasoline?!" screamed Camo Fall, panicking. He began to look around, searching for a window to escape through, and saw nothing. With rising fear, he again started to beat his hooves against the door, as flames grew higher and higher, devouring the walls and starting to attack the ceiling. "This can't be happening!"

With a loud bang, the door he had tried to open on the other side of the kitchen swung open, maybe due to the heat dislodging the lock. Maybe. It didn't matter, it only mattered only that now he had a way to escape from the burning room. He darted towards it, avoiding a couple of flaming puddles on the floor, running out of the kitchen. It didn't help: his hooves clanked on a metallic surface, as he he was on some sort of suspended metallic footbridge, while the walls around him were made of some sort of metallic and spiked grates. The door behind him shut, as a series of flames began to pour out from behind the grates.

"What the hay is all this shit!?" screamed the earth pony, as a flame darted out from behind the grates and burned his cheek. He yelped and stepped back, and yelped again when his rump hit the door: it was now cold and metallic, and when the stallion turned, he saw a metallic jail door behind him.

"Fuck, what was in the kitchen, some kind of fucking air drug?!" thought frantically the earth pony, beginning to run, his hooves clanking loudly against the metallic floor. The flames were all around him, but still held back by the grates at his sides, even if the metal was getting hotter and hotter every second. From above him, he noted a series of chains and hoofcufs dangling from the ceiling.

"Ok, my brain has officially gone! Fuck!" screamed the stallion, turning his head to see the jail door opening with a blast, and… running towards him. It was like if the wall behind him was chasing him. From behind the door, a series of chains sprang out, wiggling behind the stallion, as if they were trying to grab him. Camo screamed, trotting even more fast.

His head was getting numb due to the fear and fatigue, but finally he managed to see a simple, wooden door at the end of the path. Without even thinking about it, he jumped into it.

-oOo-

Solaris moved his eyes around: the rest of the ponies were relaxed in the dining room. High Winds was reading the old newspaper, Dahlia was examining a guide to the town with the two unicorn sisters, while around another table, Crow was bragging about his last feast, as an annoyed Metal Hooves listened to him. But Camo hadn't returned yet.

"This place isn't that big." muttered the stallion, heading towards the kitchen door.

And suddenly, it burst open as Camo Fall jumped out of it, smashing against the other stallion, slamming him to the ground.

"We have to get out of here!" he nearly screamed, before receiving a slap from the other pony.

"Geez, calm the fuck down!" growled Solaris, grabbing his fallen shades and putting them back on. Camo had a quick glimpse of a couple of green, slitted eyes.

"There is fire! And stuff! And…" started the stallion, before Solaris passed him and opened the door: the kitchen was the same as before. Slightly lit and extremely boring and dusty in appearence.

"Dude… you are tripping balls." commented Solaris, closing the door.

-oOo-

"What the hay?!" exclaimed High Winds, catching the attention of the unicorn sisters and the little filly.

"'Sup?" asked Fire Flower, raising an eyebrow. The pegasus didn't answer immediately, staring at the newspaper.

"Listen to this. The newspaper is like almost a year old. But listen to this." She finally managed to say. She cleared her troat and began to read: "Tragedy hit our little town this past morning, as the oldest flying ship of our town crashed in the swamp at the far side of the lake. Apparently, the driver of the flying ship, Caronte, in service on the ship from over twenty years, had pushed it directly into a storm, sure that the ship could handle it. 'He was pratically in love with the ship', declares Silver Wings, the chief of the airship station; 'He was sure that the old thing could resist anything. Turned he was wrong.' The old structure of the ship wasn't able to resist the strength of the wind, as the ropes and wood broke apart. The entire ship, and its all load of passengers, who we remember here, including fourteen adults and six foals, crashed in the swamp. Attempts to help] were useless, as all passengers died immediately. Only the back compartments of the underdeck part of the ship survived the crash. Unfortunately they were used only for luggage. The driverCaronte, who initially was believed to have fled the site of the crash, was found not far away from the area. Apparently, he hung himself with his own raincoat. It is unknown if he did this for what he had done, or for the 'death' of his only companion. It's rare for our town to witness such a tragedy, and from our organization, a condolence is sent to every family member involved in this incident." She concluded.

"What the hay is happening here…?" asked Winter Lily, her eyes wide.

-oOo-

Yay, progression!

Next episode, our courageous group of unlucky ponies will find a way to enter town, searching for explanation… finding something else though. Good or bad? You'll see…


	4. Subway

"I'm keen on thinking of this as some sort of 'adventure vacation'. It's not an unusual thing, although rather nasty, when you lose all your luggage." Commented Crow, as Solaris and Camo returned to the main room of the restaurant. "To merge with the history of the place or some shit like that. A lot of crap anyway."

High Winds frowned and covered Dahlia's ears, protecting her young mind from the various profanities that the 'Lord' was rambling away.

"Don't care if it's something like that." grunted Fire Flower. "If it's some kind of joke or game, it has gone too far. It wasn't exactly safe, the crash."

"I say we just keep moving." Commented Metal Hooves. "This place is abandoned, to say the least."

"Well, I'll remember to buy this place, take it down, and build something useful. Like a Spa." Grunted Crow, raising his rump and heading towards the door. "This is the worst vacation ever."

"On that, I have to agree with Mr. Stuck Up." Grunted Solaris, trotting towards the door, followed by a still-shaking Camo. Dahlia jumped on her brother's back, but frowned when the stallion flinched.

"You ok, Camo?" she asked worriedly, as they exited again into the sea of fog. Winter Lily and High Winds joined the stallion, looking at his face.

"Your sister is right. Are you ok Camo? You look like you have seen a ghost." muttered the pegasus, as the unicorn mare gently pressed a hoof on the stallion's forehead.

"He was just tripping balls. Blabbering about the place being on fire." Grunted Solaris.

"Probably some poisonous plants…entered in my system in the swamp… I think. I should check at the hospital." muttered the stallion. That was indeed the best explanation. Some kind of hallucinogenic plant. That would explain all the things with the flames and chains and stuff. The stallion grumbled to himself, as the group returned to the street.

"I just hope we are not too far away from the city… my hooves are starting to kill me." Stated Winter Lily, trying to look through the the fog.

"Don't tell me. It would probably be for the best if one of you carry me on his back." Agreed Crow, and he received in response a bunch of glares from the others. "What?"

"Good luck with that." snickered the pegasus mare.

"I don't get the sarcasm. It seems that it would be a long walk, so it'll be appropriate if some of you, maybe those two strong earth ponies here, carry me around, since…" began to reply crow, before shutting up and raising his ears: a faint sound of trotting caught the attention of the group.

"Finally! Somepony!" exclaimed Fire Flower, before calling loudly: "Hey! Over here! We need help, we have a wounded pegasus." The trotting increased in intensity, and a pegasus emerged from the fog, running towards them: his coat was of a dark, blue color, that contrasted the yellow and black mane. His face was open in a smile of joy, that disappeared as soon as he saw the ponies.

"Oh… I… thought you were somepony else…" he muttered, scrabbling a hoof on the ground. "Excuse me but I don't have time to waste, I have to check the swamp."

"The swamp? That infernal place is a fucking trap. Why do you have to go there?" began to ask Metal Hooves, but the pegasus had already started to trot again.

"Hey pal, wait a sec!" pleaded High Winds, taking a few steps. The other pegasus stopped and turned, even if he continued to give quick glances towards the swamp. "We are on the right path towards town? We'been walking from all the morning."

"Sure you are. The thing is, the road is impassable, after a earthwake. And with that wing, I doubt you can fly to town, let alone the rest of you." Muttered the stallion. "Listen, Go on down the road, you'll find the entrance to the subway system. You'll probably find a train that's still working."

"Probably!" screamed Crow, but the stallion was running again towards the swamp, disappearing into the fog.

"Well, thank you, I suppose…" grunted Camo. He wasn't in the mood to complain. His belly was threatening to make him throw up, and his head felt numb.

"Yeah, thank you mister!" the little filly on his back cried out loudly, making him flinch.

"Name's Lightning Nova!" came back the stallion's voice through the fog.

-oOo-

"Is this supposed to be a subway station?!" asked Winter Lily in disbelief, as she descended the last dirty steps that led into the subway: they had found the entrance after a few minutes of searching for the broken and aged insignia of the subway line.

It was far away from what they had hoped: most of the lights on the ceiling were off or broken, and the few on were doing a horrible job of lighting up the area. The tiles on the ground were dirty, and some were also chipped and cracked. A trash can was laying on the ground, its rotting contents sprayed all over the floor.

"They sure don't spend very much on janitors." Commented Metal Hooves, pressing a hoof against his nose, trying not to breathe in the foul smell. Solaris just gagged, before turning away. Even Dahlia was making funny faces to show to the world her disgust. Her brother just ignored that and looked at the train, sitting motionless in front of them.

It was a three cars train, hanging from a railroad structure above it. The metal had been probably been bright yellow a long time ago, but now was a much darker shade, due to rust and dust all over it. The lights inside were on, even if they were flickering slightly.

"Well… I get it now. It's a city of beggars. They need some tourists to give them something to eat." Grunted Crow, looking inside the car with its door open, just to scream and jump back, as a couple of ravens cawed, jumping out from under a seat before flapping their wings and darting out of the station.

"You know… I think we can get this thing to work, though." Commented Metal Hooves, looking around. "I suppose there is a power generator somewhere. Obviously the train is out of order, but seems to be in shape, more or less. If we restore the power, maybe we can ride it in town."

"I thought you were a simple blacksmith." Commented Fire Flower, grinning. The stallion puffed out his chest.

"Well yes, but I like to be informed."

"I'll leave you to the generator. I'll be more concerned with a way to control this transport. Don't want to splatter ourselves against a wall." Commented Solaris, passing where Crow was still on the ground, and entering the car. "Falling from the sky in an airship was enough splatting for me." He grunted, before walking towards the first car. Steel Hoves nodded and turned, searching around, aided by Fire Flower's beam of light.

"Well, someone puked on a couple of seats, but so far, so good." Grunted Solaris, as he looked around. Camo Fall followed him, looking around, as his sister still continued her display of faces. The cars were smaller than a train's, a few seats each, and the first car contained the engine, leaving space for only one seat.

"We are going to be a little packed here." Stated High Winds, following the two earth ponies and sitting on an unstained seat, while Winter Lily and Crow entered as well, grumbling. They both looked at the small car, and silently trotted towards the next one.

"Oh dear Celestia… wonderful, dried blood…" grunted Crow, glaring at a deep, red stain on the car's floor. "This place sucks!"

"I'm afraid I have to agree." Nodded Winter Lily. It was not only extremely filthy, but also quite disturbing.

"Sorry about that princess, but this is the only way we have. It's probably been out of order for a few years, but I prefer this over walking through an unwalkable street." Grunted Camo, receiving a tap on his ear from his sister, as a sudden low whistle sounded from the first car.

"Ok, you should be ready to go. I don't know how to drive this thing, though." Stated Metal Hooves, trotting inside, followed by the unicorn mare, had had quite a disgusted expression.

"I know how to do it. I drove these things for a couple of years, some times ago." Grunted Solaris, turning a lever and pressing a couple of buttons. With a low screeching sound, the transport began to slide, following the railroad and entering a dark corridor. Soon, the dim light of the station had disappeared behind them, as the train entered a dark tunnel.

"Ok, I'm not going too fast here. Don't want to force it." Grunted Solaris. He only received a faint moan in response: Camo was sitting on one of the clean seats, his sister on his lap, while in front of him High Winds was tapping gently her own wing, while Winter Lily checked it over. In the last wagon, Fire Flower was looking with a rather disturbed expression out of the window, while Crow was buzzing around Metal Hooves, probably complaining about something. The stallion huffed, turning to look out of the window in front of him: it was going to be a long trip.

-oOo-

"What are those things, Camo?" asked suddenly Dahlia, shaking her brother out of the faint sleep he had fallen into. The stallion stirred, before looking where his little sister was pointing: a series of speakers, probably the ones that were supposed to advise the passengers of the stops, were attached to the metallic ceiling of the car.

"Those are for letting us know where we are."

"That would be useful now." Stated Solaris, pulling a lever. "In this darkness I can barely see anything. Maybe I can try to turn it on. Maybe there is some sort of pre-recorded message or something." he added, starting to search over the console.

"Maybe there is a stop near the hospital. My wing is hurting." Grunted High Winds, flinching as a twing of pain hit her wing. Camo gave a quick glance at the mare, before sliding down from his seat and walking towards her, lending a hoof.

"Are you feeling ok?" he asked, trying to sound gentle, while Dehlia looked at them from the seat. "Do you want me to call Winter Lily?" The mare smiled, trying to dismiss the stallion.

"I can survive. I just hope we can get this fixed as soon as possible." She said calmly, trying to reassure the earth pony. In the same moment, the speaker began to buzz, as Solaris let out a victorious cheer from the first car.

"What's this?" asked Crow, annoyed, as the sound of static spread through the cars. "It's killing my ears, turn it off!"

"So sorry, Lord." Hissed Solaris, turning and glaring at the unicorn. "But I think I'll keep it on, since maybe we can hear something useful that may help avoid colliding into the end of the railroad."

"Well, this static isn't helping for sure!" shouted the stallion, stomping a hoof on the ground. As if to answer his claim, the sound of static disappeared, replaced by the low, melodic sound of a carnival organ. Crow's eyebrow rose up, as the music started to rise in volume, filling the wagons.

Fire Flower rocked on her hooves, uneasy, while Winter Lily was visibly shaking. Metal Hooves looked at both his friends.

"Are you girls…ok? You seem to be a little uneasy…"

"We are fine…" gulped Winter Lily, licking her lips. "We… just don't like circus music."

"Fillies…" huffed Crow, looking out of the window. After a few seconds, he let out a loud scream of fear, falling off from the seat, trying to back away from the back-window. "RUN! FUCKING RUN!"

An enormous, luminescent pony skull was floating behind the car, a few meters away from the last wagon. The teeth were distorted and yellow, the skull slightly cracked. The most disturbing feature, however, was the big, red fake nose placed where the nostrils were supposed to be. The area around the eye sockets were covered with white makeup, while red makeup drew some simple features around the eyes and over the cheeks. It was a grotesque and terrifying skull of a clown.

"What in the blue name of Celestia…" screamed Camo, turning and looking with terror at the apparition behind the train, as Dahlia screamed in fear, covering her head with her hooves. Solaris screamed as well, pulling even more the lever of the engine. Fire Flower blinked, falling to the ground and staring out the window, while Metal Hooves was banging on the door that connected their car with the other one.

"Why is this fucking thing blocked?! Why why why why?!" he screamed, terrified. Crow joined him, trying to push the door open with his magic, to no avail. The train began to rock, as if something was hitting the sides.

"O dear Celestia, what's going on?!" screamed Winter Lily, as one of the windows shattered, and what seemed to be a whip entered into the car, wrapping itself around a pipe of the metallic frame of the car. With a screech, the car began to come loose. The skull opened its jaws, as two more whips smashed through a couple of windows, catching the frame of the car.

"Help us!" screamed Crow, slamming his hoof on the door. With a loud screech, the car was pulled off the railroad and away from the other car, as the metallic nail that connected the two cars broke. With a series of screams, the car was dragged in the darknes, the four ponies banging their hooves against the walls of their metallic cage, as the skull lowered and disappeared in the darkness.

High Winds blinked, terrified, as Camo turned and dashed across the first car.

"Whst the fuck is going on?!" he screamed, looking at Solaris. The other pony was motionless, looking, mouth agape, at something on the console. As soon as he lowered his eyes, Camo Fall saw the lever controlling the speed was set to -maximum-, and was broken and stuck.

-oOo-

Progession. Finally. I'm sorry guys, but I might slow down a bit with teh writing. Of all my fics (in case you follow something else too.) Aaanyway, don't worry, our four ponies in the lost wagon are not dead. That would be to easy, right?

And a last note: closed submissions for the Ocs. Seriously, I would have never expected so many oc, but I'm with a lot of them now.


	5. Welcome to Silent Hill

With a loud screech, the two last cars stopped inside the underground station, almost smashing [themselves into] the end of the rails; luckily, the emergency brakes had still worked. The lights hanging from the ceiling cast light over Solaris as he tumbled out of the first car, panting heavily. He sat on the ground, pressing a hoof on his chest, where he could feel his heart still pumping frantically. From the second car, High Winds ran out, breathing heavily as well, her eyes terrified and wide. Camo Fall hugged his sister as she cried hysterically, her face hidden in her brother's neck.

"What the actual fuck just happened?!" nearly screamed the stallion, trying to keep his voice under control while comforting the little filly.

"Come on… come on now… there must be a logical explanation to all of this… there must be some underground gases that induced hallucinations, and then there was an accident, and the other car is gone, and…" began Solaris, moving away his sweaty mane from his face.

"I don't give a flying feather about why we saw a skull! We have to search for help!" screamed High Winds, stomping her hooves on the ground.

"Well, then let's get out of here! The authorities… hay, they have to help us!" exclaimed Camo Fall, running towards the stairs leading outside, still keeping his sister close.

"Wait for us Camo!" called out High Winds, galloping behind him. Solaris caught his breath, before following the others outside. He trotted up the stairs, and stopped as soon as he emerged outside: the other two ponies were standing there, staring at the sea of fog surrounding them. Solaris looked around, feeling a twinge of fear in his heart, as his ears picked the sound of… nothing. Nothing at all. Complete silence. His eyes passed over the buildings and the street around them: they all seemed to be abandoned, the doors blocked by wooden planks, as well as some windows. Few street lights were on, spreading faints shower of light in the dark streets. The sky was as well covered in fog, that shrouded all the environment like a blanket.

"What… kind of sick joke is this?" finally stated the mare, looking around at the abandoned buildings. "Is this the place…?" she mumbled, looking at the silent street.

"Come on, we are probably in the old part of the city. We just have to move on." Commented Solaris. "Let's just be quick. The other's time may be getting shorter and shorter." He said, taking a couple of steps, before stopping, sniffing the air and pressing his ears on his head: from the fog, a stream of light came out of midair, accompanied by the sound of hooves against the ground.

"Oh, I was sure to have heard somepony." Said calmly an earth pony stallion, emerging from the fog. His coat was a warm walnut brown, with a long blond mane reaching to his shoulders, falling over one of his eyes. He was wearing a saddlebag seemingly half empty, with a little flashlight clipped at his side.

"Finally somepony!" exclaimed in relief the mare. "You have to help us! We were in the subway, we got in an accident, four of our friends fell, maybe they are wounded, or even…"

"Woah there girl, relax." Said calmly the stallion. "I'm sure they are ok."

"I'm not so sure of that, after what we have seen…" muttered Camo Fall. "We have to search for the police station, and for the hospital. We need help."

"Well… I'm afraid that the police station isn't going to be any use. It was abandoned like all the rest of the town, last time I checked." Said the brown stallion. "As well as the hospital. But I have to admit I wasn't able to enter inside it, so maybe there is somepony in there."

"What are you saying…?"

"I see you are little confused." Stated the pony, raising an eyebrow. "Are you by any chance… from the outside?" he asked cautiously.

-oOo-

Fire Flower opened her eyes, her head pounding in pain. She tried to refocus her sight, as she stood up on her wobbling legs. Her mind was racing, confused, as her sight focused on her surroundings: she was on a grassy floor, and around her there were some once brightly-colored wagons, now covered in rust and dust. As she shook her head and tried to focus better, she noticed the low music of a circus playing in the distance.

Where a circus was emerging from the fog.

-oOo-

"What do you mean, the town is cursed?" asked in disbelief Solaris, looking at the earth pony. Trevor, which was his name, as soon as he discovered the group had come from outside, pushed for them to join him inside an abandoned dress shop. After a few hesitant moments, they finally decided to follow the earth pony inside.

They did so mostly because Dahlia seemed too upset to be able to stand another bath in the fog sea. And now, they were all gathered around the stallion's flashlight, as the littly filly chewed happily at a candy that he had given her.

"I don't have a better term for it. It's… actually hard to explain…" stated the stallion, scratching his neck. "Listen, I came from outside too. I… well, let's just say that my daughter disappeared, when we were home. I was desperate, no one seemed to be able to help me. Then one day, I received a letter from her. She said she was ok in this town. So I packed my things and left. But as soon as I got here, I noted something was wrong. I think you can see it too."

"There is no pony around?" asked High Winds, as her wing gave a twitch.

"There is this Celestia forsaken fog?" asked Solaris, his ears moving slowly as the stallion scratched the ground.

"There is a ghost skull in the underground tunnels?" grunted Camo Fall, while giving a quick glance at his sister.

"Well, more or less. You see, this place is crazy. I don't know what's going on, and the few ponies I have encountered aren't helping at all. you are the only one that actually had a conversation with me." Said the stallion. "Now, I just kinda want to get my daughter and get out of here."

"Isn't this strange?" asked Dahlia, while finishing her candy and walking towards the group of big ponies. "We received that vacation letter, and he got a letter from his daughter. Maybe we should ask at the mail place?" she asked in her sweet tone. Now that she had calmed a little, she was already trying to be useful again.

"That actually may be… not a bad idea… but we should also go at the hospital… I'm a little worried for High Winds' wing…" grunted Camo, giving a quick glance to the pegasus mare. "What do you two think?" he asked, turning towards Trevor and Solaris: they were both still, their ears raised in the air: a faint sound of crying was coming from outside.

"Stay quiet." Whispered Trevor, quickly closing the flashlight and crawling towards one of the windows. Dahlia covered her mouth with her hooves, as her eyes widened in fear. High Winds hugged her, beginning to pat the little filly's head, as Solaris and Camo Fall followed the other pony and glared outside.

A couple of seconds passed before they actually noted the creature outside, and as soon as their eyes focused on their target, Solaris jumped on his hooves, and Camo repressed a scream: through the street, walking slowly in the fog, there was a pony, stumbling along the road. It was a tall, tall pony. It was coatless and maneless, the skin pale and plagued, as if it was victim of some sort of disease. Around his slim neck there were the signs of a suturing, as if his head had been reattached to the body. The mouth was sewed closed. The pony's eyes were two pools of black void, from where streams of tears were falling down its cheeks.

The lower half of its body was engulfed in heavy, spiked chains, that dragged over the ground, emitting a low rasping noise.

"What the hay is that thing?" murmured Solaris, while Camo was rubbing his eyes, looking in disbelief at the creature.

"Bite me if I know." Whispered Trevor. "But I have seen it it at least a couple of times. Trust me, you don't want to have it spot you." He whispered, as the tall creature stumbled away, crying softly, a muffled wailing coming from his sewn-shut mouth.

"I've seen it smash in a pony's head." Continued Trevor, as the figure disappeared in the fog. "Luckily, it's easy to spot, with all its crying."

"But what is it?"

"Don't know. But believe me, it's not the only crazy thing around here."

"That's nice…" muttered Solaris, before abruptly turning towards High Winds, who had just emitted a wail of pain. "We have to move towards the hospital fast. Your wound is going to get infected, without proper care."

"I told you that I'm not sure if there is even somepony in there!" hissed Trevor, moving away from the window. "And maybe, the solution to this whole riddle may actually be in the post office! Idiotic of me that never think of that."

"Solaris, escort this guy to the post office." Said Camo Fall. "I would be really sorry if something happened to him, and you can help him, if necessary." Said Camo.

"I'll bring High Winds and my sis to the hospital. I want them both checked. Here's hoping there is still somepony sane in this place."

"… I usually don't take orders from the first pony that I meet…" growled Solaris, before giving a quick glance at the little Dahlia, who was climbing onto her brother's back. "But this time, I'll assume this is the better choice of action."

-oOo-

Winter Lily opened her eyes, her head pounding. She was alive, that was the first thing she noted. The second thing she noted was that she was sitting somewhere, her body bound by something that was pinching her skin.

She opened her eyes, exploring her surroundings: complete darkness. She couldn't even see where she was. Surely she wasn't in the wreckage of the car, even if [she] was being held in place by something.

"Hello…? Anypoy here…?" she asked to the darkness. As soon as her words stopped echoing, a couple of scarlet lights flashed on, showing her surroundings: she was inside a circus tent, sitting in one of the public seats. She was the only one, locked to a seat by a string of barbed wire.

The mare began to breathe heavily, trying to free herself from the wire. Another light flashed, lighting up the central area of the tent: the circle of sand where performances usually took place. In the middle of the area, there were a couple of ponies: one was wearing a bright colored green garment, as well as a rainbow-multicolored afro. Its face was covered in white makeup, and on its face was shining a scarlet plastic nose.

The second one was her sister. She was chained to a table, apparently awake, but with a rag of cloth in her mouth, to prevent her from speaking. At that sight, Winter Lily tried to free herself from the chains, but the spikes pinching her flesh make her squeak in pain.

The happy and cheerful music of the carnival organ started again, coming from all around her. The clown pony in the central area turned towards the empy seats, smiling cheerfully.

"Good evening, fillies and gentlecolts, to the spectacular and amazing circus of Silent Hill. For this night's play, we have already a volunteer, Fire Flower!" bellowed the pony, pointing happily at the mare strapped to the table. "She has kindly decided to join us for our wonderful trick of the jump into the acid bowl!" The pony screamed again, as another couple of scarlet lights lit up, pointing to a little rubber pool full of boiling green liquid, while the second one pointed to a trampoline, high above it, attached to one of the pillars that were holding up the tent.

"Our brave volunter will be dragged onto the trampoline, where she will jump off into the acid, for our entertainment!" continued the clown, while trotting towards an electronic console and pulling a lever. With a mechanical noise, the table where Fire Flower was tied began to move over a system of cables and rails, beginning to slide towards the pillar.

"Stop that! Flower!" screamed Winter Lily, trying to free herself, as the clown hopped away into the darkness. One of the wires around one of her forelegs suddenly released itself, falling on the ground with a muffled tingle. Winter Lily stared at it for a second, before trying to free her other foreleg with the help of her now free leg, while staring with terror as her sister continued her ascent.

"Fire, do something!" she screamed, slamming her free hoof on the wooden bench where she was sitting, and something fell down, hitting the ground with a metallic noise. The mare moved her eyes, focusing them on a big, bloodied bonesaw that was laying on the ground.

Oo-oO

Horray, prograssion.

I really wanted to put a bigger threat on the same line as Pyramidhead and the Bogeyman, so I came out with the wailer guy. Who/what is is it's open to debate.

Next chapter, let's see… well, let's put a pool: should we follow High Winds, Camo Fall and Dahlia towards the hospital, or Solaris and Trevor towards the post office? Let me know.

I really think I have something for railroads. I'm using them everywhere.


	6. Searching for something

"We have to keep going!" exclaimed Dahlia, pressing a hoof on the map that she was holding in front of her, seated on her brother's back. "The hospital seems to be down this street." She added. Camo Fall nodded and continued to walk, giving quick glances at the street around them. He had the impression of seeing some shadows moving in the fog, as if some pony were spying on them, just to crawl away as soon as he and High Winds drew close.

On the other hoof, the mare didn't even notice them, concentrated on ignoring the pain of her wing. In the few minutes that had passed since leaving Solaris and Trevor, the pain was quickly escalated, becoming more and more agonizing for the mare.

They continued to walk slowly, with Camo leading the group, following the filly's instructions, and occasionally giving a glance at the mare. He caught the sight of infected flesh poking out from under her bandages, but didn't say anything. They needed a doctor, fast.

"Here we are!" chirped the little filly, pointing at the building in front of them: an imposing building towered in front of them, apparently abandoned: the metallic gates were open and were screeching faintly as they swayed weakly. The windows of the building were all dark, except for a couple of windows at the upper floor.

"Well, at least somepony is still here…" mumbled Camo Fall. High Winds groaned and followed him towards the door of the structure. "Now, let's see. Trevor said that it was locked, so I might need a little bit of time to open this…" muttered the earth pony, tapping on the handle.

The transparent door opened with a screech.

"Well… that was unexpected…" he muttered, pushing open the door.

"Maybe you have telekinetic powers? That would be interesting." Stated the pegasus mare, chuckling a little before letting out a yelp of pain. The stallion stepped up beside her, checking her torn wing.

"How is it?" asked the mare, entering inside the building. The stallion didn't answer, looking with worry at the bandaged wing: he could see some dark shades under the white cloth wrapping it.

"We may need a doctor. I think it got infected." He finally stated, trying to reassure the mare and looking into the dark hall: it had the same aspect of every hospital he could imagine: the counter, the bench for the waiting patients and visitors, a couple of stretchers abandoned in the middle of a side corridor, a wheelchair abandoned on the ground…

"Let's head up." He mumbled, before suddenly stopping and raising his ears. He was quite sure he could hear whimpering. And the sound of steps.

"Camo…" began Dahlia, starting to sniff. The stallion grasped the mare and dragged her behind the counter, pushing her and his sister under it. He then rose his head slightly, to look for what was making those sounds: and when he saw it, he let out a scream of fear that drew the attention of the creature that was stumbling aimlessly through the hallway.

It was a pegasus pony. Well, theoretically it was. It had been completely skinned, as if its hide had been peeled off and stuck over its wings, which were now two flat, thick sheets of skin. The eye-sockets were empty, but no blood was pouring out of them, or from anywhere else on the pony's body.

The creature turned its head towards Camo and let out a screech, as its fleshy, wing-like appendages grasped like tentacles at him, twisting the skin slices around the earth pony's neck, dragging him away from the protection of the counter.

The stallion screamed, trying to free himself from the disgusting grasp, but to no avail. The creature continued to roll the fleshy slabs around Camo, like a spider wrapped its silk around its prey. He had the quick sight of High Winds and Dahlia jumping away from behind the counter, screaming, before he was completely engulfed by skin.

He could smell the foul reek of rotting flesh, as the skin tightened around him; he continued to struggle, but he could already feel his lungs begging for air.

-oOo-

"Well… this is quite interesting…" murmured Crow, walking slowly over the dusty floor. The last thing he remembered was the freaky clown skull and the fall into darkness. And after that, blackness. And after that, the mansion where he was now walking.

Someone had probably dragged him there. Even if he was quite surprised to have survived the fall seemingly undamaged. Well, it wasn't his concern who saved him. He was just searching for the exit.

He rose a candelabra he had found on a shelf, moving it slowly in his grasp, trying to get a sense of the place where he was wandering: he had already passed five or six rooms, but never found a window to the outside. Just abandoned rooms.

From what he could see, anyway, this was seemingly a mansion for nobility of some sort: he had passed a couple of rooms filled with old and dusty, but surely valuable, paintings, all representing the outline of what probably was the town. He had also passed a room hosting a big and black grand piano, even if the strings inside had been mostly cut and destroyed.

"A noble place indeed…" he muttered, turning slowly around to examine the new room he had entered: apparently another lounge, with a rotted and colorful carpet on the floor, half eaten by moths, a fireplace with no fire, a dusty portrait hanging above it, and a stuffed crow on a pedestal above a bookshelf filled with yellowed and unreadable books. And of course, another closed door.

The stallion sighed and walked towards it, ready to enter into another room, as he gave a quick glance around and moved the candles for a better view. Then he stopped as soon as the weak stream of light lit up the portrait. He turned towards the fireplace, his eyes wide as plates.

"That's not…" he began, before gulping and taking another step. The sad face of a mare was staring at him from the portrait. A face he hadn't seen in a long time. A brown coated mare with a hazel mane tied in a braid, placed along her neck. The stallion blinked, trying to understand what he was seeing. This was quite surreal. How many chances were there to find a portrait of his only foalhood friend in a lost city in the north of Equestria?

"It's just a coincidence." Muttered Crow, moving his eyes away and returning to the door, opening it while holding the candelabra out in front of himself: for a nice change of scenery, it wasn't a room, but a long, dark corridor. There were even sets of armor at the sides, holding old and rusty spears. "Fancy. I should totally add some armor to my manor." Muttered the unicorn, taking a few steps.

A light flashed on at the end of the corridor, flowing out from a side room far from him, projecting two shadows on the blank wall: a figure laying on the ground, as the second shadow towered above it, slamming a hoof on the other's neck. After a couple of seconds, the light went off, but the stallion was already running towards the end of the corridor, the candles in his grasp threatening to go out due to his speed.

He galopped towards the end, and turned into the room where the light and shadows had come from, and froze. The room was quite empty. No figures, no lamps. Nothing. And the only creature there was staring at the stallion, as he took a few steps back. It was a big and thin crow; in fact, it was a crow bigger than two ponies put together in spite of how extremely skinny it was, and it moved on both its legs and wings, which were folded on the ground.

"I must be dreaming…" muttered the stallion. The crow titled its head and cawed. A breath stinking of decomposition hit the unicorn. "Mh… quite real…" he thought. He turned, and started to run like crazy, screaming, as the creature behind him started to chase him, its claws rasping roughly against the walls of the tight corridors. As he fled, the stallion managed to grasp a couple of rusty spears and toss them behind him, without trying to see if he had hit the target. He dashed towards the door, passed throught it, and slammed it behind him, bracing it with his body. He let his eyes dart around, searching for something else to block the door.

He let out another scream as he saw the portrait again: the mare inside was now mauled, her body scratched, cutted and pecked, one of her eyesockets now empty. He was panicking, and the fact the stuffed crow was now holding an eyeball in its beak didn't help.

"Come on Crow, Come on, think, think!" he screamed at himself, as something powerful hit the door behind him. He turned, trying to brace the door better, thinking of trying to levitate one of the spears on the other side of the door. It would be hard, but not totally impossible. He had to try. He started to concentrate, using his magic to scope behind the door, searching for one of the rusty weapons…

The wooden floor beneath him suddenly collapsed, sending him falling down in the darknes, the candles finally giving up and going out. He had just enough time to hold his breath when he heard the sound of waves beneath him, before splashing down into a cold sea of some liquid.

Above him, muffled by the liquid around him, he could hear the cawing of the crow.

-oOo-

"Dahlia, get out of here!" screamed High Winds, jumping out from behind the counter and pushing the little filly away from the screaming creature that was holding Camo in its fleshy wrap. The little filly didn't even look back, galloping away and screaming.

The pegasus mare turned with a gulp, trying to decide if she was crazy enough to attack a skinless monster.

"Oh fuck!"

The mare charged, trying to headbutt the creature, that reacted to the hit with a low screech, but didn't release its hold on the trapped stallion. The mare tried to hit it again, again to no avail. The creature turned its head, letting out a slow hiss and taking a step towards her.

"Oh fuck!" screamed again the mare, trying to find anything near her that could work as a weapon: nothing. Maybe the wheelchair…no, probably not. She took a step back, while noticing that the struggling inside the bag of flesh was diminishing. Camo was suffocating.

The creature let out another hiss, crouching, preparing to leap against the mare. It was actually so focused on her that didn't notice the other mare who had just emerged from a dark corridor: a light brown pegasus mare with a flowing silver mane was gliding towards it from the corridor with a camera in her hoof, preparing to slam it into the monster.

-oOo-

Dahlia panted, pressing herself against a wall of the empty hospital, pressing her hooves on her mouth as she heard a scream from where she had run from. The little filly crawled under a stretcher, shaking in fear, two flows of tears flowing off from her eyes.

A series of babbling come out of her mouth, as she sniffed in fear and guilt, thinking of how the creature had caught and trapped Camo. And she just ran away.

"I'm just a filly… I couldn't have done anything…" she muttered, before covering again her mouth as the sound of hooves filled her ears: she saw four hooves passing in front of the stretchers, walking slowly towards the hall where she had left High Winds and Camo Fall. She poked out her head a little, and saw a pony with a medical suit and a ridiculous mask with a long, curved nose covering all his face.

The little filly could feel panic rising, and her stomach giving signs of preparing to throwing up the few candies Trevor had given her. She needed somewhere better hidden to hide, and her eyes fell over an apparently intact door. She gave a quick glance into the corridor, before dashing through it, pushing open the door with a little shove, and closing it silently as soon as she enetered the other dark room.

Safe, finally.

"Who are you?" asked a cold voice behind her, as a couple of hooves grabbed her, dragging her away from the door and into the darkness.


	7. To everypony his nightmare

Camo's vision was starting to become foggy, as the stench filled his nose and his lungs begged, asking for air. He attempted a last struggle, before giving up: the flesh around him was like a cocoon, trapping him. He was going to die, suffocated, into a fleshy cage. Quite disgusting.

While his mind started to process such thoughts, the stallion felt the grip around him weaken. He heard the muffled sound of something hitting something else, and the grip around him loosened further, just a moment before his coffin fell to the ground and began to open. Camo felt a couple of hooves moving away the flesh around him, and the comforting freshness off the air filling his stinging lungs.

"Here he is! Camo, are you ok?!" arrived the fearful voice of High Winds, as the mare moved away the disgusting pale cover around the stallion, dragging him out, helped by another pegasus mare that Camo didn't recognize: she hadn't been on the air-ship.

"Thank you… I was panicking, I didn't know what to do…" muttered High Winds, looking at the other mare and giving out a little smile. "Thank you for killing this… thing…" The other mare waved a hoof, dismissively.

"I was scared the first time I saw one of these things, too." She stated, gesturing towards the motionless abomination. "But then, I discovered that my good ol' camera can give a good beating to those things." she added with a smirk, pointing at the machine dangling from a string around her neck. She was apparently unimpressed by the blood splattered over it.

"*cough*… thanks… to both of you…" wheezed the stallion, standing on wobbly, looking at the creature. He saw the nape of its skull cracked, a dark flood of blood dripping from the wound. "What… is this thing?"

"I call it a Wrapper." Stated the mare with the silver mane calmly, as if she wasn't doing anything different from ordinary. "While I'm called Silver Streak. And who am I having the pleasure to talk to?" she asked, giving out a little smile.

"Camo Fall. That is High Winds…" muttered the stallion, starting to look around. "And my little sister Dahlia should be here, somewhere…" he muttered, looking around. High Winds gulped.

"I… she ran away as the creature attacked." She muttered, keeping out the part where she had told her to. The stallion's eyes went wide.

"And you didn't stop her?! You have seen what there is around us!" he nearly screamed, stomping his hoof on the ground.

"I was worried about you choking to death!" retorted the mare back. "I was trying to help you!"

"Maybe you want to tone your shouting down a little…" stated Silverstreak. "I don't want to get in the way of a couple arguging, but really, you should keep it down. At least here…"

"We are NOT a couple!" screamed High Winds. From behind a closed door near the hall came out a bubbling sound and a gurgling scream.

"Shit, I knew it!" whispered the other mare, crouching down. "Get down, now!" she hissed. The other two immediately mimicked her. There was a loud splashing sound against the door, followed by another gurgle and coughing. "You have to stay the fuck quiet around this place!" Silverstreak hissed, before starting to crawl down the hallway, gesturing to the others to follow her. "There is a lot of nasty shit around this hospital. You don't want to be too loud here." Another gurgle and a bang was heard again the door, plus the sound of something splashing. The mare continued to crawl, followed by the others.

"What are you doing here anyway?" whispered the pegasus, while finally standing up and walking slowly away on the tips of her hooves.

"Searching for a medic for her wings." Muttered the stallion, pointing a hoof towards the mare with the bandaged wings. "But now, I should find my little sister.

"Forget it. Crawling around this hospital is madness. There are a lot of creepy things lurking around. That sort of things you don't even want to be touched by." Whispered the mare, peeking around a corner. "But at least, I can tell you there is a doctor here."

"How can you be so sure?" whispered back the stallion. The pegasus gave him a glare, before raising her ears for a couple of seconds, and then answering.

"I have already met him. He's here. He fixed me a couple of times, when I tried to leave this place" she murmured. "I've been trapped in this damned town for over a month now. I got myself beat up a couple of times. Now-" She stopped when she bumped into a dark figure that had just emerged from a side corridor: a pony dressed in a medic coat, with a white, featureless mask on his muzzle, except for the long, pointed nose.

Metal Hooves ran through the metallic pipe, his hooves ironically making a clanking sound at every step. Behind him, three creatures were chasing him, their steps echoing inside the pipe. The unicorn gave a quick glance behind him, before speeding up: they were gaining terrain.

"How is this even possible? Shouldn't I be dead?" wheezed the stallion, taking a turn and continuing to run. "Or maybe, I'm dead, and this is just my afterlife!" he thought, just before seeing the end of the duct.

He continued to run, and finally darted into the open: he was in the middle of a grassy field. Apparently some sort of building yard, judging by the abandoned building machines, rusty pipes and bars scattered around, and the skeleton of a house standing in the middle of it, all of this sunk in a sea of fog. The stallion glanced around, before storming towards a wheelbarrow, crawling under it and covering himself, leaving just an inch of space to see out of.

After a few seconds, his pursuers darted out from the pipe, stopping and starting to stumble around, sobbing and calling his name. Metal Hooves repressed a gag, as the stench of burned flesh arrived at his nostrils. He risked a glance from under his hiding spot: one of the creatures was quite near, sobbing loudly while looking around.

The creature was a colt with a black and white skin, similar to a coat of ash, torned in some places where spots of burned flesh were evident. The skull emerged from its face, as if someone had forced its head into a fire and burnt everything else away. The colt wobbled away, crying softly, calling Metal Hooves name. The stallion tried to calm down, as he sow the little colt walk behind a corner.

He closed his eyes and tried to think: he had been closed in the car, with the stuck up unicorn and the sisters, then the freaky skull-like thing was appeared, and the cart was fallen into the darkness. He remembered clearly the impact, and he remembered he had closed his eyes due to the pain. And when he woke up, he was inside a large pipe, without a scratch. And those three things were hunting him.

He crawled silently out from under the wheelbarrow, looking around with his ears raised: nothing.

"Maybe they have returned into the pipe…" he whispered to himself, before trotting away. After a moment, he was at the edge of the construction site, marked by a tall fence. The stallion huffed, and started to follow it, until he finally reached a rusty gate.

"An exit. Finally." He muttered, trying to force it open. The gate didn't budge, just emitting a squeaky sound as the stallion tried to push it open. "Come on, think…" he muttered, studying the gate: old and rusty, but still sturdy. No point in try to force it. He checked it, locating the silver lock keeping the door shut.

"Well… look here…! He muttered, studying it. "A common padlock… well, nice!" he chuckled, before lowering his horn: his magic should be able to open it. He smirked, as his horn lit up.

At least, it lit up for a second, before the glow disappeared with a splurting noise. The stallion blinked, before trying again. The scene repeated a couple of times, every time with a groan of desperation from the stallion.

"Ok… ok, stay calm… evidently you need the key… but whoever has it is probably outside. I'm closed here." He hissed, looking around, glaring at the palaces and buildings in the distance, wrapped in fog. "I have to wait until somepony arrives…" he muttered, before flicking his ears: a teary babbling was raising behind him.

"Damnit!"

He turned and ran towards the first cover he could find: a pile of bags full of sand. He crouched, while studying his surroundings: the only thing emerging from the fog that gave him the idea of security was a low and ruined barrack of cement, where the workers probably kept their lockers and maybe a place to put their tools. Maybe he could find something to force open the lock.

He quickly dashed towards the building, ignoring the sobs that now were surrounding him. He quickly pushed the door open, and closed it behind him, breathing heavily. He was sure at least one of the creatures had seen him.

As he expected, after a few seconds, a muffled cry came from the other side of the door: "Metal… Metal, please… **-**sob- help me…" cried the voice of one of the little colts. The stallion moved his eyes around, locating a metallic table. He dashed towards it and pushed as better as he could against the door. He had the quick vision of a little colt starting to open the door, before it was forced shut thanks to the table.

"Ok… let's see…" he whispered, before starting to rustle around: as he had imagined, there were a series of rusty cabinets, half of them empty, the other half full of useless junk. He scrambled around, eventually finding a pile of broken or unusable items. Well… all except for a smith's hammer resting between the others.

"What's a smithing hammer doing here?" Metal Hooves thought, as he grabbed the heavy tool in his mouth. It was quite sturdy end solid, and its presence was quite unexpected, seeing the state in which the other tools in the barrack were.

"Ok… let's see… maybe I can get out through a window…" muttered the stallion. "I'm evidently going insane, so there is probably nothing to be afraid of…" he stated, turning towards the door. "Just be rational. You are probably in the hospital after that incident with the car."

"Let's just go out and wake up from this nightmare." He finally decided. He walked towards the door, starting to move away the table.

-oOo-

"Hello doc." whispered Silverstreak, without moving er eyes from the masked figure. Camo was looking with terror at the pony, while High Winds studied the medic's set of clothes: the typical dress of the doctor during the plague of the dark ages. And too accurate to be an imitation.

The pony tilted its head, the black googles protecting its eyes scrutinizing the ponies. A wheezing voice came out from the mask, as if it passed throught a respirator of some sort.

"Why are you sneaking around? This is a Hospital, for Celestia's sake." He said in a raspy voice. "You may disturb the patients!"

"Sorry doc. but i crossed this two in the hall… the mare has some problems with her wing…" murmured Silverstreak, gesturing towards the other pegasus. The masked pony tilted his head again, before shrugging.

"Very well. Follow me to my office."


	8. It knows your secrets

The post office was easily distinguishable from all the other buildings of the town, since its structure was different: only two floors in height, but it encompassed several blocks in area. Solaris and Trevor crossed the street silently, following the light of a couple of lamps along the street, their light muffled by the thick fog.

"This fog is always here…" commented Trevor, slowly moving in a circle, letting his flashlight show the surroundings. "From the first day I arrived, it was always here… you never know what's hiding in there, and that you can't even see…"

"You just have to not use your eyes." Commented Solaris, sniffing the air. "For example, I'm good with my nose. And I can tell that there is nothing strange around here. Except everything we already know, of course." He stated, before trotting towards the door. Surprisingly, it was open, so, the couple fo earth pony entered into the building.

The interior of the post office was quite typical: the main hall was packed with chairs, which filled the empty space almost completely. On the other side of a long wooden counter where the mail ponies probably received the letters from whoever wanted to send them, there was a little empty space, and a couple of doors placed in the clean wall.

"Well then, what are we looking for?" grunted Solaris, looking around from behind his shades.

"Whatever can tell us who sent the letters." Answered Trevor, climbing over the counter and passing over to the other side. "Are you coming?" he asked, before trying to open one of the door. He let out a grunt as the door didn't budge, and started to force it.

The other stallion sniffed again the air, and as soon as he didn't pick up any smell of danger, passed over the counter and joined Trevor in front of the door, helping him. Or, to put it better, he smashed the door with a calculated kick.

"Thank you." Commented Trevor, smirking, and entering into the room on the other side. The first thing he noticed were the immense piles of letters, piled all over the floor of the immense room, as well as a large numbers of cardboard boxes. The second thing he noticed, was the zebra in a mail-pony's suit in the middle of the room, closing a series of boxes with duct tape.

The zebra gave them a quick glance, before returning to his boxes.

"Client services isn't here." he grumbled, while closing up another box. Trevor blinked, as did Solaris.

"I… uh… there is no pony…" he finally stated, still surprised by the sudden apparition. Solaris took a couple of steps, sniffing.

"Why isn't there anyone here?" he finally asked, glaring at the zebra, who ignored him, passing to another box.

"Bunch of lazy workers, I tell you what." grunted the zebra after a couple of seconds. "But if you need info, you can find them yourself in the room beside this one." He grunted, leaving the tape and taking a little golden key from his pocket. "I'm not supposed to give this to you, but who will care anyway?" he grumbled, tossing it to the two ponies. "Just let me do my job." The couple of stallions looked at him, before Trevor grabbed the key and turned.

"Come on." He whispered to his companion. "He's probably nuts. Look at him, still thinking that somepony will actually come to work. Let's get out of here." He said, before turning and exiting through the smashed door. "Maybe we are lucky and are going to find some register or something."

"Good luck in finding what are you searching for." Muttered the zebra, as Solaris turned. "Hope you are not going to regret it." He added, as soon as the stallion left.

Trevor pushed the key into the other door behind the counter ( a heavy, metallic door), and with a loud noise, he opened it, sending up a puff of rusty dustthe door slowly and cautiously, in a way that exasperated the other stallion, letting the stream of light from his flashlight travel into the dark, long room ahead.

"Clear." He finally stated, opening completely the door and stepping inside, searching for a switch. Solaris entered as well, sniffing the air, as a single light bulb lit up: it was a room with two walls covered in drawers, on every one of them stamped a different range of years.

"Oh dear…" he muttered, looking around, before focusing on another door, at the end of the room. "Hey, what's on the other side of that door?" he asked. The other stallion, who was examining a drawer, raised his eyes.

"Dunno. I'm not a mail pony. If you want to check, be careful." He grumbled, opening the drawers and starting to look inside. Solaris returned his eyes on the door. He had a strange sensation, a slight tingling in his spine, as if the door was calling to him, asking to be opened…

"Calm down Sol, that's just your imagination." He said to himself. He walked slowly to the door. A simple wooden door, with a little crack in it. Nothing special. A little piece of paper was glued to the door, spelling the word "Basement". He pushed the door slightly, and it opened silently, revealing a series of steps descending into the dark.

"I'm going down." He called, taking a few steps. "Be ready to run, if I come back screaming like a little bitch."

"Mhm…" muttered the other stallion, not paying very much attention to him. Solaris rolled his eyes and took another couple of steps.

The door slammed shut behind him, sending him falling into complete darkness.

Solaris immediately turned, and began banging against the closed door.

"Trevor! Hey, open this damned door!" he called. There was no response, not even a muffled sound. He turned again, unable to see anything in the deep darkness. He started sniffing the air, raising his ears worriedly.

The air was suddenly filled with strange noises, as if in the darkness a bunch of bugs had suddenly awoken, and started to crawl along the walls. The stallion shrugged, as he tried again to open the door, with no avail. After a minute, his nostrils started to pick up a strong and metallic smell, rising from below the stairs. Solaris gulped, as he recognised the scent of blood.

"Well… apparently I can't get out through here…" thought the stallion, turning and facing the darkness. "Might as well go down… maybe there is a switch…" he muttered, before beginning to descend the stairs slowly and carefully. He could feel the walls quite close around him, giving him a sort of claustrophobic sensation. Until suddenly, he felt the emptiness around him. He slowly raised his foreleg, until he found the wall again. He had probably finally entered into a room since the stairs had also ended.

The sound of little creatures was rising, as well as their crawling on the walls. The smell of putrid blood filled the air. Solaris gulped but started to pat the wall, until he finally found the switch.

As a couple of cold, neon lights switched on, they revealed to the terrified stallion the room: the floor was stained with blood, as well as the walls, while on the ground, near a teddy bear stained with blood, there were the bodies of three mauled foals. Their coat were stained with blood, wile their empty eyes were staring at the stallion.

A large number of fat, white maggots were crawling on their bodies, emitting a disgusting squishy sound every time they submerged themselves into the little bodies' flesh. Solaris turned, just to face a wall stained with blood.

The stairs had disappeared. He turned again, while he felt his beat pumping faster every second, as the panic started to rise: the body bodies had been mauled by claws and fangs, like some sort of predator had gotten them. He examined the room, searching for another door or something. The only thing he was able to spot was a big, rectangular mirror on the wall in fron of him, half stained by dried blood.

He tumbled towards the mirror. He didn't even know why, but he felt drawn towards it. Maybe there was a passage, an escape from this horrible room. He tried to ignore the bugs crawling on the walls and the floor, trying to climb over the dead bodies, to catch a free meal.

He took a quick glance at the mirror, trying to see if there was any passage hiding behind it. As he did so, he took a glance at his own reflection, and froze: the other Solaris in the mirror was stained with blood around his hooves and mouth, some pieces of guts wrapped around his hooves. Solaris blinked behind his shades.

"Yeah…" grunted a voice behind him. The stallion turned, resisting the urge to scream. But as soon as he saw what had spoken, he gave up and let out a loud scream of fear. An enormous, wingless dragon was crouched on the bloody floor, staring him down.

His long, reptilian body was covered in black and dark green scales, while the spikes on his tail and his claws were of a dark shade of red, making hard to distinguish the traces of blood on them. His reptilian eyes were focused on the stallion, as he let out a belch smelling of putrid meat.

"We aren't so different…" he growled, before swinging his head forward, hitting the stallion and sending him into the mirror behind him. Solaris screamed as he felt the shards cut his back, but surprisingly, he didn't hit the wall, but instead continued to fall. He felt his shades fly away from his muzzle. He opened his reptilian eyes, and stared into the total darkness that he was falling through. But he didn't even have the time to think about it before the loud roar of the dragon echoed around him.

"Solaris!" called Trevor, trying to force open the door that had slammed shut. He tried for a couple of minutes, both pulling and kicking it, with no appreciable results.

"You are fucking with me again, aren't you?!" he finally screamed, glaring around him. His voice echoed throught the room, but he received no answer. The stallion shrugged, returning to the drawer. "He probably wasn't even real, eh? I know how you work now. I should have guessed that they weren't real." He added, starting to examine all the papers inside the metallic drawer.

He passed over a bunch of papers that didn't seem to have any use, until his eyes fell on a stuffed paper bag, half hidden under all the other papers. The thing that drew his eye was the fact that his name was printed on an upper corner. He raised an eyebrow, and took it out, ripping it open with his mouth.

A video tape slid out of the paper bag. Trevor binked, actually surprised. No blood, nothing unusual or disturbing. Just a video tape. On its side there was just a white piece of paper with a date signed in pencil, and nothing more.

"Seriously? Only this?" he asked to the empty room, raising an eyebrow.

The walls exploded, as the drawers were suddenly absorbed by the floor, as the walls behind the crumbling tiles revealed that they were made of red , irregular and pulsing flesh. The lights in the ceiling fell down with a crash and a shower of sparks, sending him fall into darkness, apart from the trembling stream of light coming from Trevor's flashlight.

The stallion frowned, and hurried to put the tape into his saddlebag, while his ear flickered when a scream echoed around him.

"Dear, please don't be angry…" he muttered, as he took out a wrench stained with dried blood from his saddlebag. "I'm still searching for our little pudding cake." He added, turning towards the area where the scream had come from, lighting up the willowy form of a mare that was stumbling slowly towards him: a candid mare with a long, fluid orange mane, waving slightly in the air, ignoring the lack of wind. She was seductive in some grotesque way, her intense azure eyes focused on Trevor, her eyelashes fluttering teasingly.

Of course, her ripped-open abdomen and the tentacle-like uterus swinging around beneath her, didn't help with giving her a reassuring aspect.

"Just stay down for a little longer." Trevor said in a muffled tone, before jumping towards the apparition, raising the wrench with his mouth.

-oOo-

Her mouth was filled with the bitter taste of her own blood. Winter Lily sighed in pain and despair, as she tried to use the saw to cut loose her chained hoof. She managed to make only a couple of trembling and imprecise cuts, before stopping, her eyes watering in pain.

"Lily, help me!" called her sister's voice from above the pole where the metallic table was ascending, the other mare firmly chained to it. "I can't use my magic, do something!" she called again, moving her head around, trying to see where she was.

Winter Lily gave out another whimper, before trying again. As soon as the bloody saw touched her flesh, she trembled and moved away her head. She had already tried to saw the chain, but apparently it was a saw for wood. And flesh.

"Lily!" cried out her sister. The mechanism had stopped, and now the metallic bed was immobile, ready to drop the unicorn down into a pool of acid below. Winter Lily tried again, before bursting into tears, screaming.

"I can't do it Fire! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" she cried out, her tears mixing with the blood staining her mouth.

"What, what are you talking about?" asked Fire Flower's voice, panic clealy emerging in her tone.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…" babbled the other mare, the saw falling to the ground with a clang. Winter Lily pressed her hooves to her head, her tears falling on the dirty ground. Even with her ears plugged, she heard the scream of her sister, as she suddenly fell through the air, followed by the acute and gurgled scream of pain as she splashed into the acid.

Winter Lily continued to cry, still keeping her eyes down and pressing her hooves over her ears, even after silence had returned to the tent. So, she initially didn't notice the clown-like ponies crawling towards her.

"You were never able to stand up for her… she always took the beating… even for you… you was never able to help her…" they hissed, as the mare noted them and started to tug on her locked-down leg, screaming.

They started to swarm on her, as she screamed in terror, she and her wooden seat falling to the ground, the clownish creepy ponies starting to kick her and hit her with metallic whips melted to their forelegs. She cried and tried to crawl away, her horn shining uselessly.

Until they all suddenly stopped.

They raised their heads, their colorful faces facing towards a side of the tent where the fabric was burning without either flame or smoke.

A loud whimper echoed through the silent tent, as an enormous figure stumbled inside, dragging its chains on the ground.


	9. The Wailer

"Mh… let's see…" muttered the medic, taking off the bandage around High Wind's wing and pointing a medical light at it. The room at the top of the hospital where he had led them was rather different from the rest of the hospital: this room was clean and organized, a couple of drawers filled with medical supplies. There were a couple of medical beds, even if one was ruffled and unmade: probably the one the doctor used it as his own bed. Along one of the walls, there was a long table, filled with bottles, syringes, research plates and other such things. Silver Streak let her eyes wander around without much interest. She had already seen the room a couple of times. She preferred to concentrate on Camo Fall. The stallion was walking in circles, a vein on his neck pulsing evidently. "Oh… look at this…" called the amazed voice of the medic, drawing her attention.

"What is it?" asked High Winds, turning her head to look at her unbandaged wing, before letting out a terrified scream: on her wings, starting from the point were her joint had dislodged, her feathers had mostly fallen out, leaving her flesh bare. Her skin itself was become black and rotten, covered in little, bulging blisters. It looked as if somepony had placed a little patch of motor oil on her wing.

"Mh… quite peculiar… I never saw an infection like this…" stated the pony in the medical suit, moving the wing of the pegasus slowly, staring at the infected patch of skin. "Lucky for me that I keep up my suit." He added, as Camo stared with disgust at the wing of the mare, like Silver Streak was doing. "Don't worry, I have the cure exactly right for your condition." He stated softly, before darting towards a little door in the room, that led to a sideroom where they had the quick sight of a set of medical instruments and boxes and boxes of medication.

"Hope for you he's right." said calmly Silver Streak, adjusting her mane. "Must be horrible, not being able to fly."

"Yes…yes it is…" stated High Winds, looking fearfully at her wing, torn between touching or not the patch of skin. Then she raised her eyes to Camo Fall, who had returned to his nervous circling. "Camo listen… I'm sorry… I was just trying to look after Dahlia, I didn't think to…"

"Look after her? Sending her alone into a place full of things that neither you nor I can understand, and you call it looking after her?!" snapped the stallion, glaring at the mare, who shrank slightly on the medical bed. "If that's how you look after others, I don't want to have anything to do with you!" he nearly shouted, before turning and storming out of the door, slamming it behind him.

"Kinda nervous, eh?" asked Silver Streak, glaring at the door. The other mare didn't answer, looking at the floor, until the medic returned, looking around, as if he had heard something.

"There weren't three of you?" he asked, continuing to look around.

"He left." Answered Silver Streak. "I'm still trying to understand if he's courageous or an idiot."

"He's just a brother… he…he's worried for his little sister." Said sadly the second pegasus.

"Mh…Ok…" muttered the doctor, before turning to the pegasus mare. "Here I have you medicine!" he stated happily, showing a long and sharp saw. "Amputation makes everything better!"

-oOo-

Liquid, all around her. Cold, heavy liquid. Thick as honey. The mare knew she was sinking, but her legs were unable to move, her lungs starting to beg for air. She was going to drown.

Suddenly, a strong foreleg grasped her around her hip, dragging her up. Her head emerged from the liquid, and she took a raspy breath, filling her lungs with air. She opened her eyes and past the wet mane in front of her muzzle, she saw a dark blue pegasus with a black and yellow mane flapping his wings, trying to yank himself out of the water.

Panting, the stallion swam towards the shore, where he stumbled clumsily, leaving the body of the mare on the mud. She rolled belly-up, breathing heavily, as the cold air filled her system with life. She had the quick vision of the pegasus jumping again into the water, swimming towards another pony splashing into the water, screaming like crazy.

Fire Flower sat up on the muddy shore, coughing and moving away the wet mane from before her eyes: she was at the edge of an immense lake, sitting on a muddy shore covered in places by thin pale bushes, while a little behind her, high trees were half drowned in the fog.

She returned her eyes to the pegasus, who was emerging again from the water, dragging a unicorn stallion to safety.

"Crow?" blurted the mare, standing on wobbly legs and walking towards them. That was indeed the stallion who had just been dragged onto the mud, as he rolled his head and started to throw up dirty water on the ground.

"Well… at least I saved somepony… Not who I wanted… but this is feeling good…" panted the pegasus, flapping his wing, in an attempt to dry them. The mare eyed him, while shaking her head.

"You are… Lightning Nova, right?" she asked, remembering the pegasus they had met while heading towards the city, right after the hot table. The one that had indicated to them the subway. The stallion nodded.

"Yeah, that's me." He said proudly, puffing his chest.

"And this… is the swamp?" asked the mare, remembering where the had been heading the first time they had met.

"Well, no. The swamp is further from for the lake. But I heard splashing, and thought that maybe somepony from the crash had ended up in the lake… didn't expect to be you two, actually…" muttered the stallion.

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, nothing…" muttered the pegasus, still shaking his body to dry himself. The unicorn mare shrugged, as a cold breeze started to blow around them, freezing her due to the water still on her body.

"Say, is there a shelter nearby? I'm freezing." She lamented, as she saw Crow's body tremble with the cold as well. The pegasus looked around, as if torn by an interior conflict, giving quick glances towards the swamp, before finally looking at the mare.

"Yes, there is… follow me." He stated, before walking away, his hooves making a sucking sound on the muddy ground at every step. Fire Flower turned to the still coughing body of Lord Crow, and stepped up beside him.

"Hey… are you ok…?" she asked softly, trying to move away the wet mane from the stallion's eyes. He flinched and jumped back, looking with terror for a second at the mare, before his eyes refocused and he regained his composure.

"What happened…?" he asked, looking around. The mare shrugged. She had no idea, she was quite confused herself. She couldn't even remember clearly what was happened to her before the lake. She remembered the wagon, the floating skull, but after that, there was just confusion…

"Are you two coming or not?!" called the impatient voice of Lightning Nova. The mare jumped slightly before starting to follow the pegasus, gesturing to the other unicorn to follow them. Crow standed up on his wobbly legs, before following the other two.

"Down the shore, there is a ship." Explained the pegasus, while moving between the low vegetation, moving away branches and bushes, opening the path for the pair of unicorns. "It's been stood on the shores for years, since the incident that led it there. It's a wreck, but at least should protect us from the wind, 'til we are all dried off."

"Whatever…" grunted Crow in a low tone, jumping slightly as a cawing came out from the nearby trees. "Can we just move?" he asked, his voice trembling slightly. Fire Flower turned, raising an eyebrow: the stallion seemed to be quite nervous, constantly looking around himself and jumping at the smallest noises.

"We are almost there." Assured the pegasus, as his hooves hit again the muddy ground of the shore. The silhouette of a flat ship with two chimneys emerged from the fog. It was an old riverboat, the rusty chimneys rising towards the sky. The part of the hull laying on the shore was scratched and half covered in mold, at least, where the rotten wooden boards hadn't fallen down.

From the trees behind the group came the sound of something big rustling and stomping between the trees. Lightning Nova seemed to ignore quite happily the noise, trotting calmly towards the boat. Fire Flower followed him nervously, darting her eyes around, as Crow followed, practically attached to the mare's back, looking around with terror.

Helped by the pegasus, they climbed over the boards of the ship, and followed him into the wooden belly of the ship. A high pitched cawing emerged from the woods, as the pegasus closed the door, surrounding all of them in darkness.

-oOo-

The creature tilted its head, sniffing, as the empty sockets that were supposed to hold its eyes scanned the tent, stopping on the devilish clown ponies that had surrounded the poor unicorn mare on the ground. Winter Lily tried to scream, but her throat was dry. She just emitted a short squeal. At least the creatures around her had stopping beating her up.

Their ferine and cruel faces were contorted and distorted, their mouths open, showing their yellowish and pointy teeth at the creature, apparently forgetting about the mare. The creature let out a whimper and started to walk slowly towards the little group, the long, spiky chains wired around his backside emitting a screeching sound as they were dragged over the ground.

"Begone. You don't belong here!" hissed one of the clowns, his purple tongue sticking out of his mouth. He was the one with the metallic whips emerging from his foreleg. The creature didn't react, as it continued to move towards the group. Numerous clownish ponies hissed, baring their teeth.

Winter tried to crawl away, but the chain was still locked around her foreleg was still blocked around it, binding her to the wooden frame of the seat. One of the creatures swiftly kicked her with a bony leg, leaving another bruise on the mare's skin.

The creature let out a wail from its sewed-shut mouth, continuing to approach. The creatures around Winter Lily gave out another series of hisses.

"She does not belong to you! She is ours!" screeched a mare with a poofy orange mare, her face painted with white and red paint, the fake nose on her muzzle bobbing as she bared her rotten teeth. Then she dashed suddenly towards the creature, screeching, and raising a foreleg where the bones had severed through the skin, emerging in a series of menacing spikes.

The creature didn't move, apart from continuing on its path. As soon as the devilish mare was in front of it, the coatless, tall pony swung a foreleg out swiftly: the mare fell to the ground, her skull smashed, dripping brains, blood and black ichor on the dirty ground.

The other creatures hissed as well, and suddenly charged, swarming the creature. Winter Lily returned her attention to her foreleg. The saw had disappeared, probably moved away during the ruckus. She stared at the metal ring holding her leg, thinking fast, while around her screams and roars filled the air.

She wasn't going to chew her leg off, that was for sure. Maybe use her horn as a lockpick…? No, too big. She looked around again, and her eyes fell on a little piece of bone. She crawled towards it, and with disgust, picked it up with her mouth and started to wiggle it inside the lock, as she gave a quick glance at the creatures: the tall pony was still moving, its chains dragging slowly along the ground, while a great number of clownish ponies were laying motionless around him, most of them with their skulls smashed open. One of them also had its nose crashed, revealing a fleshy interior inside the scarlet ball. As soon as another creature jumped at him, the tall pony just swung a foreleg, smashing the attacker's body. It probably was unable to even lift its hindlegs, judging from the number of chains, but apparently it didn't need to.

While another creature let out a gurgling scream, the mare lowered her head again and continued her effort to free herself. A couple of times the bone stuck itself inside the lock, but with no results. She was going to panic. She knew that.

Suddenly, her ear flickered, as she didn't hear any screaming. No roars, hisses or sounds. She slowly raised her head, and her eyes encountered the two voids that were on the tall pony's face. The creature was right beside her, behind it a long line of broken bodies.

Winter Lily's mouth opened, dropping the piece of bone, as the mare felt a scream making his way up her windpipe. The creature let out a whimper, and raised a foreleg.

The mare immediately screamed, placing her head on the ground and covering it with her forelegs, while a new flow of tears started to stream down her cheeks.

"I don't want to die!" she screamed.

The foreleg slammed down.

The mare let out another couple of sobs, before opening an eye cautiously: the creature was still beside her, the foreleg planted on the ground, where it had smashed the chain holding her leg. The mare blinked, cleaning the tears from her eyes, before rapidly shoving herself away from the coatless creature.

She tried to stand up, but her legs weren't able to sustain her, as she stumbled again to the ground. She raised her eyes: the creature seemed uninterested in getting close. She looked at the creature, as her breathing evened out: the skin of the creature was pale and plagued, covered in crusts and bruises. Its face was of course the most disturbing feature, with its empty eye sockets were rather disturbing. The sewed-shut mouth was also a horrible sight, leaking ichor from the point where the black thread passed through its lips. The suture around the neck wasn't any better.

"Who are you?" she murmured. The creature's ear flickered, and he took a step towards the mare. Immediately Winter Lily tried to stand up, but again, she wasn't able to sustain herself. She fell again to the ground, as the creature approached. "Stop! Don't come any closer!" she screamed, again starting to panic. The creature stopped, still "looking" at her with its empty eyes.

She stared at the creature, motionless. She noted a small stump on the creature's head.

"There was a horn there!" she thought. The creature tilted its head a little. Winter Lily was starting to feel less scared now. Just… uneasy. Even if… "Fire…" she remembered. The muffled sound of her sister's body hitting the pool. The screams.

The mare's nerves couldn't take anymore. Her eyes watered again, as she started to cry. She cried, she screamed, she pulled her mane, howling her pain. She didn't care anymore if the creature was still in front of her. It could have killed her, she didn't care. At least, it would have ended her suffering.

She didn't notice that the creature had approached until the immense shadow of the pony blocked the light coming from one of the projectors. She opened her watering eyes, just to see the freak in front of her.

The head of the creature lowered, as it started to sniff the mare. Only at that point the mare noted that the eye sockets were watering. The creature was crying, and his mouth was a frown of sadness. The mare didn't move, as the nose of the pony explored her face, her shoulders and her legs, stopping on the slash on her foreleg.

It let out a muffled sob, then retracted its head. Winter Lily studied the creature, while cleaning her eyes.

"Who are you?" she asked. The creature tilted its head. Then suddenly turned, its ear raised: from the other end of the tent, another group of clown-dressed ponies started to enter, hissing and baring their fangs. The creature moved its head around, before pointing at one of the pole, while looking at the mare.

"What…?" started the marebefore the pony grasped her, pulling her up and pushing her towards the pole, as he let out another sob. The mare looked with confusion at the pole, then the coatless creature, wich had started to move towards the clownish ponies. She could have left through the entrance, why did it…

She yelped, as her hooves suddenly felt a stinging pain. She looked down, and shivered as from the ground, a yellow liquid had started to flow out. Acid. The mare gulped and grabbed the pole, starting to climb up, placing her wounded hooves on a series of wooden steps placed along the cheerfully colored pole. She gave a glance down, seeing that the level of the liquid was slowly rising, as if the liquid was coming out from some sort of underground stream or something.

She noted also that now, the entrance of the tent had been closed by a giant zipper, which sealed the only way out. Below, with the liquid already at their knees, the creature and the hissing clowns stood. She shivered again and continued her climb, her hooves pulsing with pain. She continued her climb for almost five minutes, until eventually, the steps ended.

She gave a quick glance down, and immediately looked away: the level of the acid was rising quickly (since strangely, it wasn't burning the fabric of the tent, nor the pole). She darted her eyes around: the tent was a heavy and solid cape, with no rips or missing patches. But as experience told her, on top of the pole, the tent was likely held by a series of short ropes, leaving enough space for a pony to carefully crawl through.

Or at least, she hoped so. She tried to climb further up the smooth pole. She managed to climb a couple of inches, before starting to slide back.

"Oh no, no no no no…" she cried out, trying to push herself up, to no effect. The acid bubbled under her. "Oh dear Celestia no…" she begged, grasping the pole even tighter. She suddenly felt something pushing against her tush. As soon as she lowered her sight, she saw the scarred head of the creature pushing her up, as it raised only on its forelegs, using all its height to push the mare up the pole.

Winter Lily grasped the edge of the tent, finally pulling herself up and ending up laying above the tent. She glanced inside, where the creature was staring at her with its empty eyes. The creature wailed, before turning its head towards the sea of acid, quickly rising. It turned again its head, and the mare saw the lips slowly tearing open, as the creature's mouth opened slightly, pulling loose the thread.

"IiiIi'm SsssSSso…sOoOOoo SssoRrrrRRrRy." He gurgled out in a clear male voice. "GggGgOooO!"

The mare turned, horrified, and started to move away. She tried to be careful, but she tripped and fell on her belly, the wobbly fabric dancing under her hooves. Not that you can pretend to be stable on top of a circus tent.

She didn't move anymore. She curled up, hiding her face beneath her tail, and covered her ears.

Her nerves had had enough.

-oOo-

He walked slowly through the forest, surrounded by slim oaks. The rays of the afternoon sun passed through the leaves. He looked down, as the ground turned to red dirt. Light red dirt. He looked up, and he saw it: a little wooden shed was in front of him, contrasted by more oaks. A little window was beside a cute white door, showing only darkness inside. He knew that what he was searching for was inside there. He took a couple of steps towards the house.

Then he felt a deep, visceral, sense of fear clutch his heart. Inexplicable, wild fear. He turned, starting to pant. He had to get away! He had to run! He had to hide! He had to…

He opened his eyes, terrified. He panted heavily, as coat wet with sweat. His eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room he was in. He panted again, then relaxed back on the wall behind him. He saw the little body of the little filly, Dahlia, sleeping calmly on his belly. Apparently he didn't wake her up. He calmed himself, closing again his eyes. Everything was going to be fine.

Oo-oO

Fun Fact: the dream sequence is based on a dream I really had a few days ago.

And yeah… I like to try to surprise my audience. Did I succeed with this cap? I hope so.


	10. Going On

Solaris' nostrils sniffed the air, as the stallion ran through the dark, his hooves clanking loudly on the stone floor. Around him, the smell of putrescent meat and rotten flesh filled the air, threatening to make him gag any second. His ears were flapping as well, following the sound of heavy steps stomping behind him.

"A dragon. A Celestia-fucking dragon…" he thought, while almost slamming himself into a rock. He circled it and continued to run, unable to see where he was going.

"Where are you going Solaris? You know you can't run away from me. I smell the blood on your hooves." Roared the cacophonous voice of the dragon behind him, just a second before a stream of fire was shot a few inches above his head, lighting up for a second the cave complex: he had the brief vision of the long passage he was running through, and a large cave ahead.

The stallion sprinted, trying to ignore his burning muscles, as the cavern returned to darkness. He almost tripped a couple of times, before actually feeling the walls getting further away and the echoes growing, letting him know that he had just entered the cave.

He continued to dart his eyes around, narrowing them in an attempt to locate any source of light. And he did. A door. A fucking door in a cave? Why not, since apparently mad things where the norm in this town. The door actually was open, and a unicorn stallion was stepping out of it, a big blacksmith hammer held up in his magic grasp.

Metal Hooves.

"Well, this is certanly not the place I was expecting." He muttered, before turning and seeing the other earth pony emerge from the shadows, running towards him.

"Dragon!" screamed Solaris, while from behind him a roar echoed in the depths of the cave. The unicorn immediately stepped back, letting the other pony enter into the barracks. Before slamming the door shut, he had the quick vision of a scaled, clawed leg entering into the beam of light exiting the building.

"I thought you were done for!" panted Solaris, while leaning against a wall. "Apparently the fall didn't kill you, heh?"

"Apparently not." Commented the other one, while dragging a series of metallic lockers in front of the door in an attempt to barricade it. A loud thump was heard, and some splinters flew away from the wooden door.

"Why are you being chased by a dragon?" asked Metal Hooves, as another roar echoed outside. Then he stopped when he saw Solaris' eyes, no longer protected by his dark glasses: a couple of reptilian eyes, with vertical, narrow pupils.

"I don't know." Hissed the stallion, sustaining the unicorn's stare. "But I know one thing: this place isn't safe. There isn't another way out?"

"The only way is that door."

"What about the windows?" asked Solaris, before noticing the wooden boards nailed in front of them. "Can't you open a path?"

"I guess I-" started the unicorn, before screaming like a little filly when suddenly the door and part of the wall exploded, as the pointy muzzle of the dragon entered the room. The reptile roared, spitting slimy and greenish saliva all over the room, as his fangs shimmered malevolently, ready to devour them. His enormous eyes stared them down, as the roar almost deafened them.

The unicorn immediately jumped to a window, starting to smash the boards with his hammer. Solaris turned, as the dragon's eyes narrowed, and a menacing light started to blaze up from his throat.

"Oh no you don't!" screamed the earth pony, turning and kicking the dragon's jaw, forcing his mouth closed. The beast emitted a hiccup, as the flames he was preparing backfired inside his mouth.

"Come on!" called the unicorn, finally smashing the last board and jumping out. Solaris spat at the dragon, before jumping out as well. "Where are we going?" asked the unicorn, as they started to run away from the shed. They had the quick vision of the dragon trying to free his head, now stuck inside the little building due to his spikes and scales.

"I don't know. The furthest possible!" answered the other one, narrowing again his eyes. This time though there wasn't total darkness. A dim light was shining far away. "There!" he called, continuing his run, while from far behind arrived the loud roar of the dragon.

The two stallions continued their run, eventually arriving at the source of light: a little path in the stone wall of the immense cavern complex. They shared a glance, before starting to crawl through the little passage. After a minute of panting and sliding, almost getting stuck a couple of times in the small passage, they emerged.

"O dear Luna, Celestia, and all the goddamned universe, what now?!" snapped Solaris: they had entered a circular room with walls made from copper, which reflected the scarlet light coming from the floor: a metallic grate suspended over am immense pit of fire. The only thing different from the smooth walls was a thin, vertical stairway that was attached to the other side of the room, rising upwards.

"Well… apparently, there is only one way out here…" muttered Metal Hooves, before running through the room and jumping onto the staircase. As he had expected, both the grate and the stair were searing hot. He let out a wail of pain, before starting to climb up.

"Wait, can't we just see if there is another way out?" panted Solaris, looking around, the adrenalin still pumping through his system.

The answer to his question came in the form of the dragon's roar and a loud thump near where the passage was.

"He's coming!" he screamed, before darting towards the stair and starting to climb up, ignoring the stinging pain of the burns against his flesh. As he started to climb, he heard the sound of crumbling stones and distorting metal. The dragon's head was starting to enter inside the room. He moved his eyes up, trying not to panic. "Climb faster!"

"I can't go faster than this!" called back Metal Hooves. They continued their climb, as the dragon finally entered completely into the room below them. He looked around, before roaring and start to climb up the wall after them, piercing his claws into the metallic wall, balancing himself against the other wall with his wings and his tail.

"You can't run away from me, Solaris!" he roared, emitting a foul breath that almost made Metal Hooves faint. "Wherever you go, I'll find you!" he continued, snapping his jaws at them, before letting out a loud laugh.

"I can see the end of the stairs!" called Metal Hooves. "A little more… come on!" he cheered, ignoring the loud roar that almost covered half of his sentence. Solaris nodded, hoping that there would be a passage for them to flee in, and too small for the dragon to pass throught.

Another roar from the dragon caught his attention: this time it wasn't a mocking or challengin roar. It was a roar of fear. He lowered his eyes, and watched in terror as the flames under the far away grate-floor had started to rise rapidly, as if somepony had turned up the heat. The flames were actually burning along the backside and the flanks of the dragon. The immense scaly creature emitted a wail of pain, before slamming his head against the walls: the stair cringed. The dragon emitted a last howl, before his claws let go the alls and he started to fall down, his body gradually turning into flames as well. Just a moment before he totally vanished into the blazing inferno, his claws tangled with a lower part of the stair and pulled it down: with a series of screeches, the copper stair started to loose its supports.

"Made it!" called Metal Hooves, finally reaching the edge of the cavity at the top of the steps and rolling away from the stairs. Solaris continued to climb, when suddenly the staircase trembled, and it dislodged itself. The stair fell slightly back, and the stallion was trapped on it. A step further up and the stair was going to break away completely. But he had to move away, since the flames under him didn't gave any sign of dying down.

"Metal, a hoof here please!" screamed Solaris, while the metal under his hooves continued to heat up.

"Coming, I'm coming Solaris, I'm…" started the unicorn, arriving at the edge, before suddenly stopping and looking at the other side of the "well": a little foal was hanging from the other side of it.

"Metal, please…" he called desperately. The unicoprn looked at the little body, hypnotized.

"Metal, for fuck's sake!" screamed Solaris, as the flames continued to rise.

"Metal…"

"I need help right now you dumb idiot!" roared Solaris, his tail starting to emit a slim trail of smoke. Metal Hooves shook his head, before levitating his hammer down, near Solaris. The earth pony looked at it for a second, before jumping off the stair, which dislodged itself and started to fall down, and tangled his hooves around the tool. Metal Hooves grunted, as his horn shimmered and raised up the hammer and the earth pony, dropping him nearby, on the dark and fresh floor.

"Why did it take you so long?" panted the earth pony. The unicorn shook his head, while looking at the other side of the pit. Empty.

"Nothing…" he murmured. "We should find a way out." he added, looking at the darkness surrounding them. "A way out from wherever we are." He added.

-oOo-

She couldn't remember if she had fainted or fallen asleep. All Winter Lily was sure was that when she opened her eyes again, she was in a totally different place. She was curled up on the dusty blanket of a bed, her head placed on a soft pillow that had a slight smell of mold. She raised her head: she remembered being on the top of a circus tent, not inside any building.

She was resting on a double bed in a large room, the walls planked with refined oak wood, a couple of shelves filled with dusty books and a closet on the wall. The mare blinked, before slowly stepping down off the bed. Immediately she noted the floor: the wooden planks had been scarred, as if iron spikes had been dragged around the floor. She looked around, before slowly stepping towards the door, her ears raised, ready to pick up on any sign of danger. She opened slowly the door, which gave out on a large lounge. The floor was scarred as well, while a couple of shelves had been thorn to pieces, which were now messily burning in the fireplace. The mare took a couple of steps, before walking into the lounge, looking around.

"HhheeEeEeEEllOOooO…" wailed a voice coming from her left. The mare yelped and turned, panicking, before blinking in surprise: from a side door, that entered on a messy kitchen, the scarred creature that had helped her in the circus tent was waving timidly a plagued hoof at her, while on his head a deflated and ripped chef's hat sat in precarious balance.

"H…hello…" stated the mare, her eyes wide. The creature emitted a little wail, before pointing at the fireplace. The mare gulped, before slowly walking towards the fireplace and placing herself over a deflated pillow. She let her eyes wander around, examining the various paintings on the wooden walls. They were paintings of landscapes, mostly, even if a one frame caught the mare's attention: the only photo on the wall.

Apparently it was a family photo, depicting four ponies apparently in a restaurant, smiling at the camera: there was a massive purple earth pony stallion with a short, messy mane, dressed like the gangsters in the old movies that Winter Lily had seen when she had just arrived in Ponyville. He had a clever smirk on his face, while staring in the camera with his silver eyes. Beside him there was a silver coated unicorn mare with a long and silky scarlet mane, smiling deviously as well. The last couple of ponies were two foals: both were purple coated, but one of them had a scarlet mane, while the other one had a silver one.

The mare was so distracted by the picture that she initially didn't hear the sound of the spiked chains dragging along the floor, carving throught the wood, until an apple rolled against one of her legs, startling her. The creature was standing behind her, his mouth sewed close again, a tray with a couple of plates on it on his head. The creature emitted a strange noise, before bowing his head and sliding down the tray.

The mare's nostrils picked up the smell of the cooked food with pleasure, as her tummy grumbled, reminding her how she was hungry. She let out a small thank you, before diving into the food. It was slightly burned, but she wasn't going to complain. The creature walked beside her and dropped itself on another pillow, ripping the fabric with the chains around his hindlegs.

"Thank you, I was starving." she said in a muffled tone, pieces of roasted hay falling down her muzzle. She didn't even have the time to feel scared or disgusted by the creature's presence, due to her hunger. The creature let out a soft wail, staring at the mare with his empty eyes. The mare resumed exploring the room with her eyes, feeling comforted by the warmth of the fire and the taste of the food.

-oOo-

Camo growled to himself, cursing High Winds' name. He actually realized that he was lost only when he stopped to kick an abandoned stretcher in the middle of a corridor.

"Fuck." He whispered harshly, pressing himself against a wall, his rage replaced by cold fear. He suddenly was able to hear the coughing and choking coming out from the closed doors on either side of the corridor. "Damnit." He whispered, trying to remember what path he had taken when he stormed out the room, but wasn't able to recal it. He cursed his stupidity, and didn't notice the little filly, until she tugged the stallion's tail.

He let out a scream, but immediately shut up when he saw's Dahlia silhouette in the shadowy corridor. The filly placed a hoof on her mouth, trying to pull the stallion away, while a series of scrabbling sounds came from behind a couple of doors, accompanied by coughing and gurgling.

"Dahlia! I was worried sick!" he whispered, following the his sister out of the corridor. "We have to get out of here."

"Nu-uh. We are safe here, there is a room where the nasty things can't enter." Whispered back the little filly, stopping in front of a door. "There is a friend inside. Come on!" she whispered, opening the door and sliding in. The stallion immediately followed, with all the intention of taking his sister and getting out of that damned hospital.

As soon as the door closed behind him, he noted that the room was quite small. There were no windows. Second thing, there was just one other door in the room. A heavy, metallic door. Third thing, the only source of light was a little candle on the floor. And fourth thing, there was a violet stallion with a curled scarlet mane staring at him with his violet, cold eyes, while Dahlia moved her eyes between the two.

"Who are you?" asked the stallion, starting to stand up.

"He's my brother, he's not one of the bad things!" immediately said the little filly.

"And WHO are you?" asked Camo Fall, starin down the other stallion.

"Names are something no longer useful in this town, earth pony. But if it makes you happy, you can call me Twisted Soul."


	11. Let the downpour begin

"Well, we surely are safe here. Only one problem, there is something lurking just outside this ship, hidden in the fog. I'll go up the chimney and see if I can spot something." commented Lightning Nova, while peeking out from one of the cracked windows of the riverboat, narrowing his eyes. "You should stay inside." He added, before flapping his wings and walking out the rotten door of the cabin.

Fire Flower huffed, shaking her body, trying to dry off her fur. To her displeasure, she wasn't able to channel her magic. So no magic fire to warm up their bones. She took a few steps towards the other side of the cabin just to keep her muscles warm, as she eyed a moldy map nailed to the wooden wall.

"There are crows…" muttered the second unicorn, crouching and peeking out of the window, trying to see through the fog. "They are hunting me."

"Seriously Crow, why are you so obsessed with crows?" asked the mare with slight annoyance, turning around for a second. "Crows are just birdies."

"You wouldn't say that if you saw them eating up a dead pony…" muttered the stallion. "They are like acid on a peace of meat: devouring everything that's not bone."

"You have seen some sick things, that's for sure." Muttered the mare, looking at the map. It was covered in little stains of mold, but she was quite sure it was map of Silent Hill.

"It was an accident, I-" started the unicorn, before screaming. The mare immediately turned, and saw a crow slamming into the window, cawing and glaring with its scarlet eyes at the stallion, who was crawling away. The bird slammed its body against the glass, without seeming to care about the splurt of blood that came from its body with every hit.

The crow hit the window another couple of times, before finally smashing the glass and falling to the floor in a shower of shattered pieces of glass, motionless. The stallion let out a low whimper, while from outside, an unsettling, loud cawing filled the air.

"Stay here." Murmured Fire Flower, opening the door and looking outside. Her mouth opened as her eyes widened: the woods around the lake were rustling and waving their branches, as a countless number of black birds flew out of the forest, cawing.

"O dear…" she muttered, before closing the door. "We have to get underdeck!" she screamed, as the dark cloud of cawing birds flew towards the ship. The stallion whimpered again, but crawled over the floor towards the other door inside the cabin, that led to the center room of the ship, where there had likely once been a restaurant from all the dining tables.

"Why is all of this is happening?!" cried out Crow, as Fire Flower closed the door behind them and placed a table in front of it. The muffled sound of cawing came through the rotten walls, as well as the sound of the feathered wings brushing against the ship's walls.

"I don't know! I have decided to stop trying to figure out what's going on!" screamed back the mare. She looked around, and was happy to see that the windows of the room had been boarded up. If what Crow said was true, she surely didn't want to end up being torn apart by a pack of furious birds.

"Why are all of those birds ar attacking the ship?!" screamed Lightning's voice, as he emerged from a trapdor, covered in ash.

"I don't freaking know!" screamed the mare, looking terrified as the shadows of the birds passed through the cracks between the boards on the windows. "How did you get back in?" she asked, looking at the pegasus, who coughed.

"Through the chimney and out the furnace! I closed it, though. But there are crows even in there." He explained hurriedly, starting to move another table towards the barricaded door.

The ship trembled, and suddenly Fire Flower felt a sense of… emptiness, under heer hooves. The ship rooked again slightly, as the cawing filled the air.

"This is not possible…" she murmured, running towards a boarded-up window and looking out through the cracks. She paled at the surreal sight outside: a sea of crows was cawing and flapping their wings around the ship, darkening the sky, and filling the mare's field of view.

And the ship was in the sky, seemingly carried by the cawing mass of birds.

"Stop this!" cried out Crow, covering his ears.

"Boy, this is something really strange… something like this surely would have helped with the incident with the airship…" noted Lightning Nova. Fire Flower turned, furious about the senseless statements of the pegasus.

"Would you shut the FUCK UP about that?! That happened a fucking year ago or something! Stop bringing that up!" she screamed, a vein pulsing on her forehead. Lightning Nova blinked, looking at her with a confused expression. For a second, the mare saw his eyes go out of focus.

"I… uh… what?" muttered the pegasus, shaking his head. "We should barricade the windows! What if the crows break in?" he exclaimed, rushing towards one of the windows, leaving the mare with a raised eyebrow.

"Weird…" she murmured, before looking around for anything else to use. And her eyes fell on a big portrait of a mare, hung on one of the walls. That would do a good enough job as a board. She ran to it, and started to pull it down. "Crow, stop being a crybaby and help me!" she grunted.

The frightened stallion whimpered, but slowly crawled towards the mare, letting out a high pitched scream when the ship trembled a little.

"We are flying…" he whimpered, his eyes starting to water. For a second the mare pitied him: apparently he had gone through a lot, to drag him from self-confident smug ass to a whimpering foal in less than a day. He looked up at the painting, and let out another scream. "How did this end up here?!" he cried out.

Fire Flower raised an eyebrow, looking at the painting: it was the portrait of a brown coated mare with a hazel mane tied in a braid, laying along her neck, looking out at them with a sad expression.

"What?" she asked, her ears flinching at the sound of smashing glass. "Do you know her?"

"Yes, she…" started the unicorn, before lòetting out a broken breath. "This is crazy… but this… was a servant, in my mansion, a few years ago. Her name was Sparrow. She was quite… dear to me and… I don't have the slightest idea of how the hell a painting of her ended up here!"

"Don't ask me! Just help me!" grunted the unicorn. Crow didn't budge, his eyes glued to the picture.

The loud noise of planks being torned apart filled the air, as the walls trembled, and then a series of little holes opened in the walls, where beaks and claws were digging through the rotten wood. With a loud screech a piece of the ceiling was ripped away. For a second Fire Flower had the impression of seeing a pair of enormous claws and immense black wings, before another shake of the ship sent her falling to the ground. The painting dislodged itself, and the the frame of the portrait swung down, hitting the nape of her neck. Her vision went black as she fell to the floor.

When she opened her eyes next, she initially didn't recognize the place where she was. It didn't resemble the ship. Then she noted that she was still on the ship after all, but all the walls had been torn apart: the deck was uncovered, and only it and the chimneys had stayed undamaged.

The cawing of the crows was muffled, even if she could see the birds still flying around the wreck. She let out a little groan, trying to move away the heavy portrait that was resting above her.

"It's nice to see you again, Crow."

-oOo-

Trevor raised his muzzle towards the sky, as thunders boomed in the gloomy air. He frowned, as the first rain drops started to fall to the ground. If there was something that he had learned from the time he had passed trapped in the town, it was that when the rain was pouring down, the creatures that lived in the fog became much more aggressive.

He frowned, looking around: he was in the middle of a streeet, and all the buildings around were boarded up.

"Figures." He muttered angrily. His eyes passed for a second over a manhole, but he immediately dismissed the thought. He had passed through the sewers once. Then promised to never do it again. The rain started to fall more heavily, drumming softly over the street. He let out a low growl, before taking out the wrench from his saddlebag and starting to move slowly, glaring around.

He had to find cover, fast. He already had the impression of being watched, and he also was sure he'd heard a couple of sensual moans coming from just out of his field of view. He gulped, and continued to move, keeping his eyes on the little patch of street lit up by his flashlight.

That's why he didn't notice the creature creeping up behind him, until it jumped stright at him, sending him to the ground. Trevor's flashlight dislodged itself from the stallion's saddlebag and rolled over the asphalt, showing the slim silhouette of a mare. She emitted a moan, as she started to move towards Trevor, her uterus raised in the air behind her, like a scorpion's tail.

"Hy love…" murmured the stallion, moving slowly, his wrench in his mouth. "You never liked rain very much…" The mare emitted a little acute chuckle, taking a few steps. The eviscerated organ twisting slowly through the air.

Then suddenly she leapt, pushing the stallion to the ground, slapping away the wrench with a hoof. She let out a lusty moan, starting to rub her body against the stallion, greenish saliva dripping from her mouth. Trevor gulped in terror, trying to free himself from the monster that had the appearance of his wife.

He kicked with his forelegs, trying to push the mare away, even as she lowered her muzzle and started to lick the stallion's face. He could see in the dim light of the flashlight the tentacle that emerged from the ripped-open chest of the mare tensing in the air, ready to hit.

"Sorry hun." He grunted, headbutting the creature's muzzle. The mare let out a shriek, and Trevor took advantage of the monster's confusion, pushing her away and jumping up, panting. The creature let out a hiss, as the tendril darted towards the stallion, missing him and cracking the asphalt.

Trevor grasped the wrench, before running around the creature and jumping on her, hitting her nape one, two, three, four times, his muzzle stained by black blood and fragments of brain and skull. After a minute of pounding, he finally stopped, parting from the motionless body of the creature, panting.

He recomposed himself, moving away his eyes and taking back his flashlight, trying to avoid looking at the lifeless body. He didn't have time for this. He started to ran through the rain, looking around, searching for a building that hadn't been boarded up, while a series of moans and other sounds started to echo around him.

The rain was pouring down hard.

Oo-oO

Yay, progression! But I'm sorry for this cap, it does not makes me happy. I suppose it's just a "preparation" chapter for the chaos coming up in the near future…


	12. Downpour (I'm back)

"Stay away!" cried High Winds, stepping back from the masked unicorn wielding the saw, almost tripping over the medical bed. The "doctor" didn't flinch, continuing to walk towards the mare.

"Come on now, dearie, this is the only safe solution, you know? We have to prevent the infection spreading further." He said in a calm tone, the rusty saw floating menacingly through the air towards the mare.

"Doctor, I don't think that this tool is the right one to perform this operation… or any kind of operation, for that matter." Noted Silver Streak, looking worriedly at the other pegasus, who whas now trying to slip around the medic, without success. "Maybe you should use more… professional things…"

"Listen lady, don't try to teach me how to do my job!" snarled the doctor, glaring slightly at the other mare, before taking a few steps towards High Winds, who was now cornered against the wall.

"But you aren't even going to use any anesthesia?" asked again the other mare, trying to reason with him. She surely hadn't expected this outcome, when she decided to bring the other pony to him.

"It'll be fast." Purred the doctor. High Winds finally screamed, as the saw placed itself against her wing bone, right under the joint, ready to tear away the black, infected wing.

Something banged at the door.

The medic turned his head, as a serious of coughs and gurgles rose from behind the door, as something hit the door again.

"That stallion before… he didn't lock it." he whispered, fear leaking into his voice. There was another hit against the door, and a few cracks appeared. The medic turned, still holding the saw in his magic grasp. Silver Streak dashed towards the other pegasus and grabbed her hoof, pulling her towards the medical bed.

"Come on…" she whispered, as there was another bang against the door, a few splinters flying away. The medic seemingly had totally forgotten about the two mares, facing the doorway with his masked face, the saw ready. There was another hit, and another. At the third hit, the door finally broke down in an explosion of splinters as a creature smashed into the room, emitting a gurgle. High Winds felt a cold chill run down her spine, as the other mare pulled her under the bed: the creature that had just entered inside the room seemed to be a hairless earth pony, but of course that wasn't all to it.

It was morbidly obese, and his skin was covered in bubbles and fleshy protuberances. The skin had a sick greenish color, contrasting its purple veins. The face of the pony seemed to be half-melted, and from the open and distorted mouth was oozing down a greenish mucus. High Winds had the chance to see a second one enter through the door, before hiding under the bed with the other mare.

"Stay away, you sacks of illness!" screamed the medic, with a sound like he was swinging the saw towards the two abominations.

"Come on, we have to get out of here!" whispered Silver Streak, as the sound of something splashing on the ground filled the room, followed by a gurgled scream. "Stay on to my tail." she whispered, before crawling out from under the bed and running away. High Winds immediately did the same as her, sprinting out from beneath the bed and running down the corridor, passing through the smashed door. She had just a glimps of one of the two creatures sprawled on the once clean floor of the room, its abdomen ripped open, as the second one vomited over the unicorn medic a shower of greenish stuff, before turning a corner and finding herself in the dark corridors of the hospital again.

"What were those things?!" she asked, following the tail of the other mare. She saw a glimpse of a couple of other side corridors, where other obese ponies were crawling slowly, emitting their disgusting sounds. Luckily, they were apparently too slow to try to catch the two pegasi.

"Don't know exactly. But I know they usually stay in the rooms of the hospital." Answered back the other mare. "Don't know why they are out. Let's just run out of here!"

"But Camo and his sister, they are still here, we should…"

"There is no time!" cried out the other mare, as the walls around them started to ooze out mucus and other yellowish fluids.

-oOo-

Solaris shoved his hooves into the soft dirt, digging. He and Metal Hooves had continued to walk in the dark for… they didn't even know. After leaving the flaming abyss behind them, they just continued to move, Solaris' nose the only thing guiding them, following the thin trail of fresh air he could smell in that place.

After a few minutes, they had ended up in front of a wall. But different from all the other walls they had seen so far, it was a wall of soft and fresh dirt, slightly lit up by a bunch of luminescent mushrooms growing out of it. Apparently they were inside a cave, judging by the few inches of surroundings that the shrooms lit up: rough stone walls, and the pile of dirt closing off the exit.

"We are almost out." grunted Solaris, shoving away the dirt. The other stallion let out a heavy breath to show that he heard. After running away from the dragon chasing them, they had said few words, both of them lost in their thoughts. They surely didn't want to share anything, that was clear.

After another hit, the dirt finally collapsed. The cold and fresh air entered inside the cave, bringing the smell of mud and rain, accompanied by all the typical sounds of a storm.

"Seems like it's raining."

"Thank you Captain Obvious." grunted Solaris, taking a few steps outside: they seemed to be inside an uncared-for playground, a rusty slide that had been devoured by ivy and a swing dangling sadly by only one chain were the only things still with any shape. The stallion looked behind him, seeing that they were stepping out from a little hill in the middle of the playground. He shoved away the wet mane that was starting to fall in front of his eyes and looked around: they weren't too far away from numerous buildings, all with that abandoned look.

"Well, nice to see we are still in town." He grunted. The other stallion joined him, sneezing. The cold rain was rapidly soaking their coats, starting to chill them. "We should find a shelter."

"Now who's Captain Obvious?" asked Metal Hooves with a little chuckle. Solaris ignored him and started to trot towards a building. Luckily enough, the door wasn't locked, and he was able to enter inside a ruined and abandoned boutique. His reptilian eyes examined the large room, stepping slightly on the shredded dresses still worn by the mannequins, studying the mirror shards scattered around the floor.

"Seems safe enough." He stated, after sniffing the air a couple of times, as Metal Hooves entered the boutique, sneezing again. "We shall wait 'till the rain stops. Then, we'll find a way out of this place. I don't want to spend any more time in this place."

"I guess so…" muttered Metal Hooves, sitting on the ground, as his eyes started to wander into the void. Solaris glared at him, before sitting as well and leaning against the counter, his mind returning to what the dragon had said, down in the caves.

"I smell the blood on your hooves!"

Well, no shit. He felt that too. Every day, every hour. It didn't matter where he went, nor what he tried to do to redeem himself. The blood was still there.

"Years ago… there was an accident." Suddenly stated Metal Hooves, looking at the ceiling. Solaris moved an eye towards him. "I… was with a friend of mine. In a forge… I… I don't remember clearly what happened, or how it happened… but a fire started."

"Nothing uncommon inside a forge." Commented the earth pony, shifting slightly, his eyes still locked on Metal Hooves. He had the feeling he knew where this story was going.

"I managed to get out with a couple of scorches… but my friend… he didn't get out in time." Stated the unicorn, gulping. "They found his body the day after, when the fire was extinguished. He was…"

"Unrecognizable?" suggested Solaris, with a little twitch of disgust. He knew what happened to ponies when they burned.

"It was a mass of charred flesh…" muttered Metal Hooves. "I can only imagine how much he suffered. And I wasn't able to save him from the fire." He paused, looking out the shop's window-wall, looking at the rain pouring over the street. "I see him."

"Say what?"

"I see him. My friend. His ghost, or whatever… I think I see him, in this town… when we were at the top of the pit… I saw him. He was asking for help."

"Uh. I guess that's why you didn't save my ass right away." Snorted the earth pony, with a little smile, even if inside his head, gears were turning like crazy. What was happening? Everything was starting to make less and less sense. He shifted again, looking into the street as well.

Neither noticed that the mannequins were closer than before.

-oOo-

"We should go out." said Camo Fall, tugging his sister's tail slightly. "We should join the others."

"It's raining. It's not a good idea to get out when it's raining." stated Twisted Soul, raising an eyebrow. "The creatures love the rain."

"Well, we surely can't stay here."

"I don't see a problem with it."

"Isn't that High Winds' voice screaming?" asked suddenly the little filly, stopping the quarrel between the two stallions, who raied their ears. Sure enough, two mares were screaming in the distance.

"Shit." Was the only comment of Camo, before turning and rushing out of the room. The first thing he noticed was how soft the floor was. When he lowered his eyes, he started to feel the urge to vomit: what before was a clean tiled floor was now an expanse of pulsing living flesh, crossed with blue and violet veins.

"Wuuuuh! What is that!?"

Camo Fall turned, to see Twisted Soul walkign out of the room, Dahlia grasping at his neck.

"I thought you didn't want to leave that room." He snorted, before starting to run towards the screaming, followed by the other pony.

"She knows how to be convincing." Muttered Twisted Soul, glancing at the little filly, before focusing on the corridor ahead of them: two fat, bloated ponies were crawling towards the source of the screaming, apparently unaware of the two stallions.

"Don't touch them, or you'll end up dead in no time." grunted Twisted Soul. "I've seen it happen. Luckily, they are slow as heck."

Camo nodded, and rapidly dashed around the two creatures, wich emitted surprised grunts. When the second stallion passed them, he kicked a stretcher in their direction, hitting one of them, which started to vomit and wheeze.

"This place is crazy."

"It is. But it's also impossible to leave it. Why did you think I was hiding in that room?" grunted Twisted Soul. " Running away from the monsters is the only way to survive here."

"Well, we should try to help the others!" grunted Camo Fall, continuing to run, jumping over a wheelchair in the middle of the corridor. "Together we may be able to get out of this hell-hole"

"Don't count on it."

Oo-oO

Well guys, as you can see, I'm still alive. This awfull delay was due life. Too long to explain. It include a car axident, a job, and a girl. O well, anyway, I'll try to be back more often, maybe a little less costant than before. But anyway, I'm going to finish these, you can count on that.


End file.
